A couple of
months ago, I heard about altruistic kidney donation in a lecture. I’d
never heard of it before - in fact it had never really occurred to me
that you could donate anything other than blood while you were still
alive. As I read more about it, I found myself entranced by the idea.
We
all have two kidneys, but we only need one. There are 5,500 people in
the UK waiting for a kidney. 300 people a year die because they don’t
get one in time. While patients are waiting, they often have to be on
dialysis, which costs the NHS £20,000 per year and has a massive impact
on quality of life. Kidney donors actually live longer than the general
population because they are thoroughly screened before they are allowed
to donate.
I
can’t think of any reason not to donate a kidney. I have a spare one
that I don’t even need. I could give it to someone and it would be
life-changing for them, and
it’d save the NHS the equivalent of a healthcare assistant’s salary
every year because they wouldn’t have to pay the cost of dialysis.
Time
went by. I thought about it some more and did some googling. Then I
rang the kidney unit at my local hospital and had a telephone screening.
Then I filled in a referral form. Then I made an appointment with the
consultant nurse. Yesterday I met the consultant nurse.
Since
then I have thought about it a lot. The big issue for me is that
recovery from the operation takes 4–8 weeks. I have only one possible
gap between now and the end of my degree in June 2017 in which I could
have the operation. It is in August this year, squeezed in between my
clinical placement and the start of my fourth year. My gap is four weeks
long. Straight after this, I begin my dissertation.
So
here come the what if’s. What if I don’t recover quickly enough? What
if I’m tempted to overdo it? What if I can’t work as hard as usual
because I’m still getting over major surgery? What if the university
force me to delay my degree for a year? What if the kidney transplant
team refuse to let me do it because they think I’m a reckless fool?
The
alternative is to wait until after my degree is finished and do it
then. This is what a sensible person would do. I don’t want to. Patience
isn’t my strong point.
I
want to give my kidney away NOW, as soon as possible! But everyone I
know tells me this is completely mad. But to me, there’s no reason not
to. I’m healthy, fit, have good kidney function, and can do something
positive. Why wouldn’t I?