Trailblazing surgeon wins UCT award
PROFESSOR Elmi Muller, who completed the world’s first kidney transplant between an HIV-positive patient and a donor, has won the UCT Alan Pifer Award
Muller, who did the transplant in 2008, is now recognised as a global authority on kidney and liver transplantation and a trailblazer in the field of organ transplantation in HIV-positive patients.
She is head of the Transplant Unit at Groote Schuur Hospital and head of the Division of General Surgery at UCT.
The annual award, worth R20 000, is presented by UCT’s vice-chancellor in recognition of outstanding welfare-related research and outreach work that contributes to the advancement of disadvantaged people.
Muller was recognised for her commitment to confronting the inequities that exist globally in organ donation and her long-standing work in ensuring HIV-positive patients with renal failure can safely receive lifesaving organ transplants, according to a statement released by UCT.
Beyond her clinical expertise and experience in building both kidney and liver transplant programmes at Groote Schuur, her research prowess was recently recognised with an A1 NRF rating.
Accepting the award, Muller said her personal high point was the day she was introduced to the son of a young woman she had operated on.
“One of my very early HIV-positive transplanted patients came to clinic one day with her young boy and introduced him to me. He was the same age as my youngest son and I realised the impact of his mother’s transplant. If I could do this for even one patient, it was enough for me.”
Yet when Muller performed the transplant operation on the boy’s mother in 2008, she received plenty of criticism. At that time HIV-positive patients with renal failure in South Africa were denied state-funded dialysis because they were not considered suitable candidates to receive transplants.
Despite the overwhelming need of such patients, Muller’s decision to go ahead with the surgery was deemed too risky, given the complexities of treatment regimens and the ethical questions surrounding HIV-positive organ donation.
It was only a year after Muller had completed her second set of kidney transplants between HIV-positive patients and donors, all of which were successful, that the South African Health Department gave permission for her organ transplant programme to proceed.