Ontario man is world's oldest kidney transplant recipient

Walter Tauro says he didn't even know what Guinness World Records were before he was recognized as the world's oldest kidney transplant recipient.

“I never heard of it,” the 88-year-old said with a laugh during a phone call from his home in Markham, Ont.

But once he learned more about the popular British organization that tracks human achievements and the extremes of the natural world, the retired realtor said he feels happy he was recognized.

“I'm feeling good and I'm back to normal,” he said.

Tauro said he moved to Ontario from India in 1965 and ran a successful real estate company for many years with his wife and two kids before his retirement.

In 2020, he said doctors discovered he had kidney disease. His treatment involved mandatory trips to the hospital three times a week, for four hours at a time, to receive dialysis, a process in which doctors try to replicate the kidney's function by removing excess water and toxins from the blood stream.

“I got tired of going to the dialysis,” he said.

Eventually he requested placement on a list for a kidney transplant. “I didn't hear (about it) for three years after that,” he said.

Then, in June 2023, a doctor at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital notified Tauro a new kidney was available but warned he might not survive the procedure due to his age.

After multiple tests, however, a surgeon cleared him to receive a kidney from an anonymous donor.

“It is not the age of the patient that matters, it is their overall health,” Meriam Jayoma-austria, a registered nurse with St. Michael's Kidney Transplant program, said in a statement.

Guinness World Records said on its website that “Walter was resolute in his decision to have the transplant as he no longer wanted to do dialysis every day.”

Tauro said Guinness verified his record in March.

He said the experience has taught him that everyone needs to take a chance once in a while. “If you don't take a chance, nothing ever happens.”