Waiting for the transplant is never knowing whether you will live long enough to receive a kidney. Most days I am so poorly I can’t leave my bed even to eat. “I am not allowed to travel due to extremely poor health. I can’t go further than two hours away from my house if I wish to remain active on the transplant list. Ms Isajeva said: “Waiting for a live or deceased donor kidney transplant is like being in prison, but you haven’t committed any crime. She made a public appeal after donor lists were suspended during the pandemic, and although a donor was found, they backed out 24 hours before the operation. She has the autoimmune disease lupus, which was previously managed with chemotherapy, but she is now experiencing kidney failure and is receiving end-of-life care while she urgently awaits a donor. Ms Isajeva, from Cardiff, has been waiting for a kidney transplant for three years. These patients make up more than 70 per cent of those in need of a transplant. Of the thousands of people on the waiting list, the highest number by far are awaiting a kidney transplant. NHSBT, which is responsible for organ donation, said it was not clear whether the fall in the consent rate had affected the size of the waiting list, but warned that “hundreds of people are still dying unnecessarily every year waiting for transplants”.ĭata for 2021-22 shows that just over 400 people died while waiting for an organ transplant in the UK, while more than 600 were taken off the list because they had become too ill for surgery. “There are more patients than there are donor organs available, and it manifests itself, obviously, as a waiting list going up after having come down for a number of years. Professor Peter Friend, transplant lead for the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS), said decreasing donor rates are a “big challenge” and that it is concerning that the number of donations has not yet recovered to its pre-pandemic level. The 29-year-old was due to have a transplant last year but was denied it at the last minute, after the living donor she was matched with pulled out just 24 hours before her planned surgery.ĭata from NHSBT shows that the rate of families giving consent for their loved ones’ organs to be donated has dropped – despite a change in the law in 2020 aimed at boosting the number of organs available, which means that consent for donation is now presumed after death. A young woman receiving end-of-life care says she is “just waiting to die” as an agonising three-year wait for a kidney transplant has left her “living like a prisoner”.ĭiana Isajeva is one of approximately 7,000 patients who are on the waiting list in the UK, according to the NHS Blood and Transport service (NHSBT) – the highest figure in a decade.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |