Kidney patients up north now have special transplant facility
DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan — Twelve patients who have undergone kidney transplant from the Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC) have reported excellent recovery after their surgeries, reported Director Joseph Roland Mejia.
One of them, Serafin Feraren, a businessman who distributes bread for a fast food chain, was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD Stage V2 and diabetes-caused nephropathy and underwent transplant in R1MC last Jan.19, 2013.
On his 2.7 years in post kidney transplant, Feraren has nothing but praises for the facility, its doctors and his donor, Rodalia Espanol, his maid from San Fabian for the second lease on his life.
Mejia said R1MCis one of the accredited facility of organ transplant and the only hospital north of Manila licensed by the Department of Health (DOH) to perform kidney transplant. It has the equipment and qualified medical staff trained by the National Kidney Institute in Quezon City to perform such operation, among them Dr. Adolfo Parayno, transplant surgeon.
Dir. Mejia said the first kidney transplant operation performed by R1MC medical team was in October 2012 and continues to schedule transplants from Pangasinan, Baguio City and La Union.
The 2nd kidney transplant was in January 2013 with Feraren(who was attended by Dr. Abraham Coquia and organ transplant coordinator, Cristy Palaganas) and others. Feraren agreed to be interviewed by the Manila Bulletin.
Feraren said he has been suffering from hypertension since he was 18 and had been taking maintenance. It was only in 2012 that he discovered his illness and was advised to have a transplant. Fortunately, his maid took compassion on him and agreed to donate one of her kidneys, he tearfully recalled.
Feraren started his dialysis in 2012 and after 5 months he underwent a transplant after learning that his creatinine just kept elevating.
His advice: “Let us take care of our kidneys always. At first, you won’t feel any symptoms but when you ignore it, the pain you will suffer and the money you will waste in dialysis and maintenance would simply be unbearable.”