High-flying kidneys a historic first

Aunt goes under the knife at same time niece receives a new donated organ. By Marty Sharpe.

AN OPERATION that involved four people being cut open in separate hospitals, and kidneys flying past each other high above the North Island, has given two people a new lease of life.

The ‘‘paired kidney exchange’’ procedure, which is new to New Zealand, allows non- matched donors to help a friend or relative by giving their kidney to a stranger in return for a compatible kidney.

In just the second procedure of its kind in this country, Hawke’s Bay woman Jessica Jones-Wakely, 27, received a new kidney six weeks ago. At the same time her aunt, unable to donate to JonesWakely, gave her kidney to a stranger.

‘‘It is essentially a matter of saying, look, I was prepared to give Jess my kidney, but I can’t so I’d like to be able to donate to someone who would like mine so long as we get a match for Jess,’’ Kerryn Jones said.

Earlier this year, an Auckland man was similarly motivated and ‘‘ walked off the street and said he’d like to give a kidney to someone’’, said the scheme’s medical director, Ian Dittmer. That donation went to Jones-Wakely.

On October 31, aunt and niece went into surgery at Wellington Hospital together while two others – the anonymous donor and recipient – went to Auckland Hospital. That afternoon, an Air New Zealand plane carrying Jones’s right kidney passed a southbound plane carrying the one destined for Jones-Wakely.

‘‘I never hesitated. Leading up to surgery people were asking if I was getting nervous, or worrying about it. I couldn’t wait to get on with it, couldn’t wait to see Jess come off dialysis,’’ Jones said.

Jones- Wakely was diagnosed with a bad kidney infection, or glomerulonephritis, in January 2008 and would have been on dialysis for the rest of her life had she not received the kidney. Now, she feels much less tired and is far more mobile than she was.

It also means she can travel without taking a dialysis machine, and she is able to have children, should she want.

‘‘I’d love it if one person read this story and decided to donate. It just makes such a difference.