Tuesday, March 19, 2024

‘How we’ve been living with transplanted kidneys’

In Nigeria today, being diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease is tantamount to a death sentence.

Once the news gets to the victim, he or she starts dying little by little. Notable Nigerians, who succumbed to the disease in the last three years include the popular radio personality, Charles Bruce Muna Obiakwu and popular music producer, OJB, an indication that such a killer disease has no respect for the rich or the connected.

After Transplant

Every year, thousands of people across the world, including Nigerians, are always brought down by kidneyrelated diseases and thousands have equally died over the years. Those lucky enough require regular dialysis or kidney transplants to stay alive.

In a research published in 2013, the International Society of Nephrology discovered that kidney transplant could lead to improvement in both the quantity and quality of life of patients of the renal disease.

But, according to the author, Fatiu Abiola Arogundade, of the Department of Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University/Teaching Hospitals, kidney transplant has not been exploited to its full potential in most countries, particularly in developing economies like Nigeria.

Arogundade said, “Only a very small fraction of the end-stage renal disease population in emerging countries ever gets transplanted because of the many constraints. But kidney transplantation remains the gold standard renal replacement therapy, as it not only corrects renal functional impairment but also provides excellent or near normal quality of life for recipients and is the most costeffective therapy.

I had made up my mind that I was going to die. I had begun to make preparations… But my wife told me not TO give up

This is especially the case for sub-Saharan Africa, where maintenance dialysis is beyond the reach of most of the population.” The analysis above provides an insight into the appalling world of kidney patients in Nigeria.

Individual patients are directly responsible for their care, government subsidy is zero and renal care is still not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme. Thus, the resultant effect is a very high mortality rate with about 80 per cent of ESRD patients dying within a few weeks of diagnosis.

Inspite of the apparent limitations, some patients of kidney disease have managed to survive and are still living. One of such patients is 50-year-old Elizabeth Chima. When it dawned on Chima that she would require N7million to undergo a kidney transplant in 2014, she wept bitterly.

Her husband had died in 2012 and she was left alone to cater for their six children. She went down with the killer disease in 2009, after she had noticed a boil on her left leg. She then visited a private hospital in Ikotun, Lagos, where she was first told she had ulcer.

Chima told The Point that she knew something was seriously wrong with her health, when her right leg, too, was affected. Since there was no improvement, she visited another private hospital in Enugu State. “I came back home and spent a year without any problem.

That was in 2011. But the discomfort resurfaced in 2012. I went back to that same private hospital at Ikotun and I was referred to a laboratory, where they finally discovered I had kidney problem. I was now referred to Gbagada General Hospital,” she said.

One day during the first week of August 2013, she woke up in the morning and realised she could not use the toilet. She became frightened and was rushed to the hospital. “I was admitted for about one month again.

I was placed on weekly dialysis and the doctors said my two kidneys had been damaged; the only solution was a transplant,” she explained. It is now three years since Chima had a kidney transplant in India.

While she was being moved to the theatre for the transplant, she stated that knew she had sailed through. “I said this was the last bus stop. Even in the eyes of the nurses, I could see doubt and sorrow, but my mind was so strong.

The pain was too much that at a time I wasn’t thinking of surviving. At first, I said, is this how my journey would end? I knew that I didn’t have N7 million to foot the bill for the operation. I looked around to see where we would get such a huge amount and there was nowhere.

So, I just said if I survived, I would be thankful to God and if I died, it’s fine, too. But I thought I would not make it. That I am alive today is by the grace of God. On many occasions, I fainted in the hospital and they would need oxygen to revive me. So, I am very grateful to God and to everyone that made the journey a success,” she said.

Chima was advised by her doctors not to involve herself in strenous activities for the next three years. Her drugs for a week goes for more than N200,000, but she gets most of it in India at cheaper rates. Her son, Henry Chima, who reached out to the media for help during his mother’s ordeal, told The Point that she had returned to India twice since the transplant.

He, however, said that she could not make the journey last year due to the forex crisis that engulfed the country. “There was no money, but we hope it happens this year. But it depends on what they see and it varies.Some people come every six months for checkup,” he said. Henry insisted that his mother was in good health, though the drugs were expensive.

According to him, she also carried out a test every three months to check the functional state of her kidney and the results of the test sent to her doctors in India through email. He said that with that, her doctors would assess her condition and advise her on the dosages of drugs that should be taken as well on other related issues. But Nollywood actor, Leo Mezie, has a different story to tell.

For Mezie, who was struck with a kidney related disease for almost four months last year, his healing was divine. The good-looking actor did not undergo a kidney transplant as it was then made known to the public! He told The Point that his battle with the terminal ailment and victory over death made him to realise that, “There is God, and He works miraculously.”

Mezie added, “I was devastated, I was broken but God decided to give me a second chance to serve him. I had made up my mind that I was going to die. I had begun to make preparations, because, from research, I knew that most people live a maximum of 10 years after a transplant, some even less than that. But my wife told me I should not give up; she gave me strength to fight on.

At some point, I told her to go back to her parents and start a new life without me. She is still young and cannot afford to live with a dying man.” Before he reached out to the public for assistance, he was already spending N170,000 weekly on dialysis, apart from the money he was paying for consultants.

It was reported that he was down with advanced stage of kidney disease and required 60,000 pounds sterling to carry out a transplant. “I did not undergo a kidney transplant, though that was what the doctors in the UK said. God did His work and I was only treated effectively. I call what happened a miracle, because tests carried out on me revealed that my kidneys were badly damaged and the only solution was a transplant. But after weeks of treatment, the doctors became shocked that they were able to revive my kidneys,” he said.

He, however, lamented that so many people he had thought would show support deserted him. “Normally, I expected my colleagues and friends to rally round me, but they were the least people that showed up when I needed them. I can count my five friends that rallied round me, not to talk of my colleagues.

The experience taught me a lot about humanity. Based on the kind of love people showed me when I was down, I never imagined that such love existed in humanity. I was shown love from people that I least expected from. I never knew that this profession could allow people love me this way.

“You should see the messages I got on my Facebook and the kind of money I got. Once I received such monies, I asked my account officer to trace the sender so I could call and thank them but they always chose to remain anonymous.

There are a lot of people that are going through what I experienced, but they are not that lucky. Many of them would die due to the ailment and because of that, I decided to set up the Leo Mezie Kidney Foundation as a way of saying thank you and also helping people. Already we have begun work and are treating two people,”Mezie said.

By next month, Mezie said he would finish a movie project that he left midway, because of his ill health. He admitted that the doctors warned him to stay away from work till his second check-up in April.

So, he has been cautious about what he engages in. Some weeks ago, he celebrated his birthday. And for him, that was an occasion to thank God, because he never believed he would survive another year or witness another birthday. “I cannot even explain how I felt. The day before my birthday was suspense-filled for me, because I felt I was not supposed to be alive; instead I was about to witness another birthday. I was scared that I would probably sleep and not wake up on my birthday. I went to church for thanksgiving, because God did not only save my life, he made me witness a new year and my birthday.

“It did not only occur to me that the illness could have killed me, I concluded that I could not make it. I concluded that I was going to die and there was no way I was going to make it.

On my bed, I thought about the experiences of about five other people who had gone through the same ailment and they did not make it alive. I knew of prominent people, who had the money to treat the ailment, but they died due to various complications. But I was there on my bed and I could not afford one month dialysis, not to talk of handling the whole challenge.

A lot of things made me believe and gave me the conviction that I was not going to make it. I did not find it difficult to convince myself that it was over, because those who had the money to treat the ailment could not make it, so why should I? That is why I said that the testimony is beyond my comprehension,” he said.

A kidney specialist, Dr. Ebun Bamigboye, said that the incidence of chronic kidney failures was at an alarming rate, insisting that one out of every seven Nigerians was at one stage of kidney failure or the other. “We estimate that we get about 15,000 new patients with chronic kidney disease every year.

About 50,000 patients in Nigeria require dialysis, but just 1,000 are on it, as we speak. The prevalence rate of kidney failure in Nigeria is 15 per cent and this is high in every sense,” he said.

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