Sister’s gift of life

MICHAEL Kiely was seven years old when a tractor rolled over him, breaking his pelvis, injuring his bladder and damaging his kidneys.

Four decades on, and after years of recurring kidney infections and months on dialysis, Michael received a kidney from his younger sister, Annette.

On Jan 10, Annette’s kidney was transplanted to Micheal within the hour as the siblings lay in separate operating theatres in Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital. The road to the transplant was a long one — despite the damage caused during that long-ago accident, Michael’s kidneys did Trojan work for 33 years.

However, Michael was plagued by kidney infections. These eventually left him immune to oral antibiotics: “That meant that when I got a bad kidney infection, I had to go to hospital for five to seven days to have the antibiotics intravenously. That was heavy going,” says the 48-year-old, who describes the pain caused by the kidney infections as “ex-cruciating”.

Years of recurring infections resulted in a serious deterioration in his kidney function and at the age of 40 the haulage contractor had to go on dialysis.

“Eventually, my kidneys stopped working properly and toxins started to build up in my body. I went on dialysis in Jan 2009, following another kidney infection,” says the Cork man who is married to Mary.

The dialysis was a gruelling experience — three sessions a week, each lasting four and a half hours — left Michael, from Kilglass, Mitchelstown, exhausted and bound to the hospital for months.

The following autumn, however, his kidneys were finally removed in two separate operations three months apart. After that, Michael became eligible for a kidney transplant.

In 2011, 192 kidney transplants took place at Beaumont Hospital, 27 of which were from living donors. In the same year there were 248 transplants — kidney, pancreas, heart, lungs and liver — from deceased donors.

There are more than 650 people in Ireland awaiting life-saving organ transplants including heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas, but Michael was lucky.

When the news broke that he was a transplant candidate, friends and family queued up to take the test to see whether they were compatible. His younger sister Annette, 44, who lived in Mitchelstown, was also tested and was deemed to be most suitable.

Her children, aged 21, 17 and 10, and her husband, Mike, strongly supported her decision to donate a kidney to her older brother. Last January, Annette went under the surgeon’s knife.

“She was still in surgery when I was brought down to have the transplant — the organ was literally removed from Annette’s body and transplanted to mine within an hour,” he says.

Having the operation was a big decision, says Annette, adding that the unstinting support of her parents, husband and children helped enormously.

“I’m thrilled to have done it — it’s fantastic to see how well he recovered and the change in his lifestyle. Michael has more energy and more life,” she says. The siblings have always been very close, she says, and she was deeply grateful to be able to help her brother: “It was a gift from me to him.”

While Michael noticed a slight overall improvement in his wellbeing immediately after the operation, it was not for some weeks that the benefits of the operation made themselves known.

“I was in hospital for about 10 days. About three weeks after the operation, I began to notice that I had more energy. I was also able to eat a normal diet as opposed to the very restricted renal diet I had been on for dialysis — I was able to drink things like coffee and milk.”

After years of illness, and months on dialysis, Michael is now enjoying a new freedom. “Now I come and go as I like, as long as I take my medication,” he says.

Michael always loved skiing, but had to stop while he was on dialysis and awaiting the transplant. “I’m still going in to CUH for blood tests every fortnight, but I hope to be back at work full-time by June or July, I have much more energy — and I’m hoping to go skiing in France or Austria next winter,” he says.

Annette, too, has made an excellent recovery. She has not experienced any problems as a result of donating one of her kidneys: “I don’t notice having just one kidney. It’s amazing. I was very fit and healthy going into the operation and have recovered very well. A lot of people I have met since the operation say they only have one kidney and can manage perfectly well,” she says.

Organ Donor Awareness Week

¦ The Irish Kidney Association’s Organ Donor Awareness Week runs from Mar 31 — Apr.

¦ Volunteers from the organisation’s 25 branches will be selling ‘forget me not flower’ emblems, brooches, magnetic car ribbons and pens and distributing organ donor cards.

Each of the 25 branch networks of the IKA is organising local activities to coincide with the week.

¦ Proceeds will go to the Irish Kidney Association’s support programme for patients on dialysis and those who have had a kidney transplant.

¦ Free information fact-files which accompany organ donor cards are obtainable from the Irish Kidney Association and are available nationwide from pharmacies, GP surgeries and Citizen Information Offices.

¦ Organ Donor Cards can also be obtained by phoning the Irish Kidney Association LoCall 1890 543639 or Freetext the word DONOR to 50050. Visit website www.ika.ie

¦ It is now possible to store an organ donor card, the ‘ecard’ on Smart mobile phones.

Simply search for ‘Donor ECard’ at the iPhone Store or Android Market Place.