Husband saves life of wife given four hours to live
He donates his kidney for transplant
AFTER both her kidneys failed and with just hours left to live, Donna Ferris needed a miracle.
Little did she realise that it would come in the shape of her own husband, Karl.
To keep her alive, doctors inserted a tube into her neck so she could have dialysis while they looked for a donor kidney.
In the search for the best match, her parents were tested, but health concerns were raised about their fitness to cope with just one kidney.
So without a moment’s hesitation, Mr Ferris, 34, offered one of his to save the woman he loved.
Now, after a successful transplant, the couple of 14 years have decided to start a family.
Mrs Ferris’s world collapsed three years ago after the 33-yearold went to her GP with backache, only to find she actually had kidney failure.
Although she struggled along with a kidney function of just 15 per cent, things began to look bleak last July when it plummeted to just 3 per cent.
Doctors gave her just four hours to live and said she needed a transplant to survive.
Mrs Ferris, a shop assistant who hopes to return to work this summer, said: ‘We used to joke that Karl would end up saving my life – and now he actually has. He has been amazing. I don’t know where I’d be without him. It was pretty scary.
‘I still have to go to the hospital three times a week for checkups, but we are both doing well.
‘One of the biggest things we’d like to do now we’re on the mend is start thinking about having a family. Doctors told me that in 12 months we can start trying.’
The couple, who have been married for seven years and live in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, had their surgery at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital on April 25. Mr Ferris had his kidney removed in the morning before it was put into his wife’s body in the afternoon in a threehour operation.
The warehouse supervisor said: ‘Giving Donna one of my kidneys was a complete no-brainer for me. She’s my wife and I just want her to get better.
‘I don’t think of it as having lost my kidney at all.
‘A lot of people have said how brave I am for doing it, but when I knew that she needed a kidney I didn’t think twice about it.
‘I wasn’t too nervous, but I knew it was a major thing and I’d never had an operation before. There was only a 50 per cent chance of the kidney working, so I’m so glad it seems to doing well.
‘It is just a relief to help her and see her getting healthier.’
A spokesman for the NHS blood and transplant service said: ‘What Karl Ferris is doing is very selfless.’
The transplant is a complex operation. First, a cut is made in the lower abdomen through which the donated kidney is put in place. The patient’s kidneys are usually left where they are if there are no problems with pain or infection.
Second, nearby blood vessels are attached to the donated kidney to give it the blood supply that it needs.
Finally, the ureter of the donated kidney, which carries urine from the kidney to the bladder, is connected to the patient’s bladder.