ONE of the state’s leading kidney transplant specialists has called on the Mount Gambier community to consider organ donation to help save lives in the regional community.
This was the message at the Mount Gambier Hospital Health Advisory Council’s recent community forum in Mount Gambier.
Professor Toby Coates – a kidney transplant pioneer in South Australia – appealed to the community given the rates of kidney disease in South Australia.
His comments come as a Mount Gambier woman is likely to become one of the first patients to undergo a dual kidney/pancreas transplant in this state.
Kim Telford – who is battling chronic kidney failure – is waiting for a call any day that a lifesaving donor has been found.
Dual kidney-pancreas transplant procedures are expected to get under way at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital possibly for the first time next month.
Before the state-of-the-art hospital was built, patients were forced to travel interstate to receive a dual kidney-pancreas transplant.
Prof Coates said regional people generally retrieved to Adelaide could become organ donors given the excellent intensive care units in metropolitan hospitals.
“One of the reasons why we have a high donation rate is because we have relatively more intensive care beds in South Australia than they do in the eastern states,” he said.
“It gives a good chance that someone that could be potentially be a good donor making it into an extensive care unit so a donation could actually proceed.”
Ms Telford called on people to consider becoming a donor to give people a second chance at life.
“I strongly encourage people to talk to their families and let them know what their wishes are,” she said.
Speaking candidly to The Border Watch yesterday, Ms Telford said she felt blessed that she was likely to receive a transplant possibly within the next six months.
Ms Telford, 43, has been placed near the top of the transplant list given her kidney function had plummeted to around 6pc and she was now on daily kidney dialysis at home.
Explaining she was a type one diabetic and her kidney health had been regularly monitored, she said the diagnosis of renal failure came as a complete shock.
“I was feeling tired, generally unwell and was gaining fluid,” Ms Telford recalled.
While her journey had been an emotional roller-coaster, the mother of two said doctors had determined she was a good candidate for the dual transplant give her age and overall health.
Ms Telford said she was on the waiting list for a kidney and a pancreas, which would need to be donated by a deceased person.
She revealed she had been put near the top of the transplant list due to her “rapidly” deteriorating kidneys.
“My hospital bags are packed – this is what I need to do to still be here with my family. When I was put on the list I was excited, it means a new future for me and my family.”
Ms Telford supported calls for people to consider becoming a donor given it helped save lives.
She revealed she wanted to be donor even before she became ill.
“This was something as a family we had discussed – we had already put it on our driver licences.”
Meanwhile, Ms Telford has welcomed news the redevelopment of the Mount Gambier Hospital’s renal unit was due to start this year.
Country Health SA South East regional director Ngaire Buchanan told the health forum the redevelopment was on track to start next financial year.
Conceding the current unit was “very small”, Ms Buchanan said the six-chair redevelopment would have an area where patients could be seen in private.
“We are about to go into the next phase of the design,” she revealed.
