Story saves journalist’s life as medics spot failing kidneys during research

A CORKMAN only discovered his kidneys had almost totally failed while having a medical test as part of his job as a journalist.

Brian Moore was covering a national campaign to encourage more people to give blood when he had his own blood pressure checked — revealing that one of his kidneys had failed and the other was operating at just 11% of full capacity.

The journalist, who was working for the Carlow Nationalist at the time of the discovery last year, is now on a waiting list for a kidney transplant and on medication to maintain healthy blood pressure levels.

Speaking yesterday in advance of World Kidney Day this coming Thursday, the 42-year-old said that covering a story saved his life.

Attending a blood transfusion roadshow in Carlow, he interviewed some of the doctors and nurses present, who suggested he get his blood pressure checked.

On finding his blood pressure was very high, it was rechecked, and then checked again, before a doctor stepped in.

“They said ‘look your blood pressure is really, really high’,” Mr Moore told RTÉ Radio’s The Tubridy Show. “A doctor came over and said ‘look, I’d better call you an ambulance’.”

He instead waited until the following day, when he visited his own GP in Cork, who found that his blood pressure was “phenomenally high” and straight away ordered him into hospital.

“[They found] one kidney was dead, gone, and the other kidney was working on 11%,” he said, adding he had “no symptoms, nothing”, and that his health problems were uncovered by “complete chance”.

“I was told I would definitely need a transplant and there was a likelihood that I would go on dialysis before that,” Mr Moore said.

He faces a wait of up to two-and-a-half years for a transplant, and may have to have dialysis if he does not get the kidney first.

However, apart from taking medication to control his blood pressure he does not feel any different to how he felt that day, although he admitted his situation highlighted the need for people to regularly check their blood pressure.

“You should definitely get your blood pressure checked often,” Mr Moore said.

“It is a silent killer, you are not going to know it until it’s too late. I was absolutely haunted that day.”