SAVED BY A KIDNEY SWAP Geelong’s Rod Westwood gave his granddaughter the gift of life.
Donate Life Week Through a unique exchange, Geelong’s Rod Westwood gave his granddaughter the gift of life
Although initially overwhelmed by the news that she was carrying identical twins, Clare Westwood had a dream first pregnancy, experiencing no morning sickness and no significant fatigue. But on Feb. 4, 2014, in her 34th week, everything changed. “I couldn’t feel the baby on my left moving, even after taking a bath, which would normally have them jumping about as if they were in Cirque du Soleil,” recalls Clare, 33, at the Geelong home she shares with husband Jarrod, 32, and their daughter, Quinnie, 3. “I rang Jarrod at work, he came home, and I remember us holding hands in the car on the way to [Geelong’s St John of God] hospital telling each other that it was simply sensible to check, that everything would be all right.”
It wasn’t. To their dismay, the Westwoods discovered that one of their twins, Harriet, had died in utero—of asphyxia, they would later learn—and the other baby could be in grave danger. Clare underwent an emergency caesarean and discovered that the surviving twin, Quinnie, was in a critical condition due to kidney failure caused by oxygen deprivation during Westwood’s pregnancy trauma. Showing astonishing resilience, Quinnie survived her first few months but they were just the beginning of a three-year ordeal; one that was only resolved late last year when Quinnie received a donor kidney through the Australian Paired Kidney Exchange Programme. “That happened because my father-in-law volunteered to donate a kidney to a complete stranger,” says Clare, her voice cracking with emotion. “It was the most incredible thing. We’ll never forget what he did for us, for Quinnie.”
Today, on the eve of Donatelife Week (July 30–Aug. 6), Quinnie is a cherubic, precocious 3-year-old with a verve and energy that belies her first few months, when she fought for life in the neonatal intensive-care unit of Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital. During this period, in which Quinnie endured nine operations on her tiny body including the insertion of a dialysis catheter, the Westwoods had to ask themselves whether they were allowing intervention beyond a reasonable level. “There were times when we had to ask
“We’ll never forget what he did for us, for Quinnie”
—Clare Westwood
if we were pushing too far, if it was time to let her go, to let her be with her sister,” says Westwood.
But the insertion of a second catheter after the first didn’t work saw Quinnie’s condition rapidly improve and the swelling that had caused her body to balloon from 2kg to 5.5kg in four weeks began to reduce. Six weeks after her birth she opened her eyes for the first time and her father, Jarrod, a coordinator for recreation planning at Victoria’s Surf Coast Shire, was finally able to hold her. Then, after a few months in hospital, Quinnie went home, though dependent on the daily use of home dialysis.
It was burdensome, says Clare, a graphic designer, but a blessing considering Quinnie’s start in life. Nevertheless, the family began thinking about Quinnie receiving a donor kidney, but that couldn’t happen until she reached 10kg. For Quinnie to gain that weight “didn’t seem like much, but it took 21/ years due to the fact the
2 poor thing would vomit up to 30 times a day,” says Clare, “which contributed to
more than 40 hospitalisations.”
Finally Quinnie attained the ideal weight and abdomen length and was eligible for a donor kidney. “The problem then was getting one,” says Clare. As she and Jarrod wanted more children down the track, she couldn’t donate herself. Jarrod wanted to give one of his but testing discovered he wasn’t a match. Finally, Jarrod’s father, Rod Westwood, offered. “He went through the intensive testing and though he was found to be a suitable blood type, there wasn’t a perfect tissue match,” says Westwood. “So it was back to the drawing board.”
It was then the Westwoods became aware of the Australian Paired Kidney Exchange Programme, which finds matches for patients who have a willing donor but one who is unable to donate to them due to an incompatible blood or tissue type. And Rod was a match for someone on the program. The 62-year-old says having to offer a kidney to a stranger instead of Quinnie didn’t change his mind since the outcome would be the same: Quinnie receiving a kidney she needed to live a normal life. “There were risks for me and that was well explained, but I could live well enough on one kidney,” says Rod, a financial analyst for Vicroads. “And after everything Quinnie had been through, my wife, Wendy, and I wanted to do all we could for her.”
Late last year, Quinnie and Rod were operated on at the same time— Quinnie receiving a kidney, Rod giving one up. Both operations were successful. While Rod’s recovery took about seven weeks, Quinnie was home from hospital within a week. “She had never eaten solids before, so she had ice-cream and custard in a Dixie cup,” says Clare. “Dialysis stopped, of course, and at the same time her eyes became clear, colour came into her cheeks, she started sleeping through the night. It was unbelievable.”
Now thriving at home, Quinnie enjoys regular visits from her grandfather and she is known to lift his T-shirt, spot his scar and declare, “I’ve got one of those, too, Pa!” Clare says Quinnie also likes to talk about her sister, Harriet, whose ashes sit on a shelf in Quinnie’s room. “Quinnie,” says Clare, “wraps a framed photo of Harriet in a blanket and pushes it around in a toy pram and then takes it to bed at night.”
Looking at Quinnie, Clare continues, “is a constant reminder that there should be two of them,” but considering the past few years, she says she and Jarrod and their families feel lucky. “Quinnie’s strength and love of life helps us stay positive and we’re grateful we have each other. It’s been hell but it’s getting better and better.”
“It’s been hell but it’s getting better and better”
—Clare Westwood
To register for organ donation visit register.donatelife.gov.au