This letter is extremely difficult for me to write.
For the past 25 years, my wife, Raghwinder, has been living with chronic kidney disease and diabetes. Until recently, the disease had only meant regular monitoring by various doctors, controlling her diet and blood pressure. Unfortunately her condition has worsened and she has to face the reality of kidney failure.
Since chronic kidney disease has no treatment or cure, Raghwinder has only two options:
1. A kidney transplant
2. Spend the rest of her life on dialysis
While transplant is the superior quality-of-life choice, it can be the most challenging with thousands of people waiting ahead of Raghwinder on the national kidney transplant list. Sadly, the average wait on this list can be six years - or more.
Raghwinder is currently on dialysis – she gets treatments three times a week for four hours each day for a total of 12 hours per week.
The days that Raghwinder is on dialysis, she is unable to do anything due to weakness and fatigue. The next day she feels better however the day after she is back on dialysis and returns to the same weakness and fatigue.
She is very limited to what she can do and where she can go.
Currently Raghwinder, who's blood type is O+, is 65 and could be waiting until she is 71 years old or more before she will be able to get a kidney transplant.
It has been recommended to us that a living donor transplant is the best-case scenario to continue living a healthy life.
Now the hard part: we need to find someone who is willing to donate a kidney.
We realize that what we are asking is an enormous sacrifice for anyone to make and that having major surgery is not going to be easy.
On the upside, we all have 2 kidneys and yet we only need one to live a normal, healthy life. For this reason, it is possible for people to donate one kidney.
Outside of the risks associated with any surgery, donors don’t typically experience negative health effects from donating a kidney. The length of stay in hospital is 3-4 days and the recovery time is 4-6 weeks, though the transplant centre is willing to write a time-off work letter for 6-8 weeks.
They are experts in this area and can give you all the details on what is involved and what to expect if you were found to be a suitable donor. Your inquiry, as well as the process of determining your eligibility as a donor, is all kept confidential.
St. Paul’s runs a very professional donor program - I will never be told whether you, or anyone, have expressed interest in donating a kidney.
Donors are heavily supported and given the comfort of pulling out of the process at any time. There is financial support for donors to avoid out of pocket costs like hotel stay and flight to Vancouver. If for some reason the donor ends up developing kidney disease and needs a transplant, they go near the top of the waiting list for their blood type.
The chance of dying under anesthesia while undergoing a donor transplant surgery is 3 deaths out of 10,000. That’s .03%! Per our surgeon, there is a higher chance of dying under anesthesia removing a wisdom tooth than to die under anesthesia while being a kidney donor.
Prospective donors can get worked-up and can do so without telling us, in case they want to just inquire about the process. Getting worked-up is not a commitment to do the transplant, since we are aware that the transplant team and the donor have a final say on whether a transplant would go forward. As I said before, I am doing this with the hope that it may yield a positive result for my wife.
My wish is not to put pressure on anyone to participate on this journey with us. We recognize that your lives have their own complexity and that becoming an organ donor will not be in the realm of possibility for some of you.
Here’s a link for some basic information: www.transplant.bc.ca/living_kidney_main.htm.
If this request were one you would ever consider, or wish to know more about, St. Paul’s has a wonderful donor team that you can contact completely confidentially.
You can reach them at 604-806-9027 or at donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your consideration.
Add new comment