Octogenarian Mother Donates Kidney to Save Son’s Life

Noida:  A 80-year-old mother has donated her kidney to save the life of her son, displaying the epitome of love and sacrifice. The case has entered the India Book of Records for the ‘aged living female kidney donor’.

Madeleine, a farmer from Cameroon (Gulf of Guinea, Central Africa), donated a kidney to her son Joseph, 52, who was suffering from a prolonged kidney disease resulting in kidney failure.

A team of doctors at Jaypee Hospital successfully conducted the highly complicated kidney transplant surgery, the hospital said in a statement on Thursday.

“Madeleine’s old age was of a major concern for us as mostly the health of the kidney starts deteriorating after the age of 65. After proper evaluation, it was found that she had good kidney functions and was found medically fit to donate her kidney,” said Amit K Devra, Director, Coordinator Kidney Transplant Programme, Department of Urology and Kidney Transplant at Jaypee, which has successfully completed more than 650 kidney transplants.

“However, she had a complex kidney anatomy with two renal arteries and two ureters for which we had to connect two tubes instead of one for the proper renal functioning,” said Amit K Devra, Director, Coordinator Kidney Transplant Programme, Department of Urology and Kidney Transplant at Jaypee, in a statement.

“Generally, normal people have one renal artery and ureters. A small stone was also diagnosed in her kidney. This made the process even more complicated, but without any hesitation, we took up the challenge in order to save our patient’s life,” he added.

Madeleine’s kidney harvesting was done laparoscopically to reduce the post-operative pain. After kidney removal, the stone was removed (ex vivo) while the kidney was in an ice bucket for perfusion. Both renal arteries were then connected separately with the recipient’s blood vessels, the doctor said.

“It takes an incredible amount of strength, endurance and faith to donate a kidney at this age. She did not lose hope and her strong will to save her son’s life pushed her to not give up at any point. The donor was discharged on the fifth post-operative day, whereas the recipient was discharged on the eighth post-operative day,” said Dr Vijay K Sinha, Associate Director, Department of Nephrology and Kidney Transplant at the hospital.

The team of doctors who successfully conducted the complicated kidney transplant surgery had Dr Devra, Dr Sinha, Dr LP Chowdhury, Dr Ravi Singh, Dr Anuj Arora, Dr Khushboo Singh and other paramedical staff.

IANS

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