Fortis Flt. Lt. Rajan Dhall Hospital
Sector B, Pocket 1
Aruna Asaf Ali Marg
Vasant Kunj
New Delhi- 110 070
Tel : 91-11-4277 6222
Fax : 4277 6221 Emergency No:
1800-11-7000 (Toll free)
011-26927000(Landline)
News & Events
My family is the reason I am alive
1st April 2008
Vivek is now a happy well-rounded man who is very satisfied with his life.
25- year- old Vivek Diman, currently working with a BPO in Delhi, was unaware he had a single kidney till his health started failing.
THE PATIENT
Vivek is now a happy well- rounded man who is very satisfied with his life I was born with only one kidney. No one knew this until something started going terribly wrong with me and people began noticing the changes in my physical health. They did not suspect anything very serious but what they didn’t know was that my only kidney was not functioning because of a congenital defect.
My gait wasn’t normal. Orthopaedic doctors in my hometown Saharanpur told my family that I might be suffering from juvenile arthritis, which affect the bones. My health continued to deteriorate and finally, extensive tests discovered that not only had I only one kidney, but that 70 per cent of it had failed. I was also suffering from rickets, which is caused by a deficiency of vitamin D. One of the main functions of the kidneys is to absorb vitamin D for the bones of the body and since my kidney was not functioning well I was suffering from a serious deficit. My father was not willing to let me have a kidney transplant simply because he could not believe that his young son was so unwell. He did not want me to suffer the pain of a major operation. Relatives and friends began giving all kinds of advice about alternative treatments that would solve my problem easily without surgery. Perhaps they did not perceive the magnitude of the problem; they didn’t realise I was running out of time. And I did run out of precious time. My father took a year to be convinced that alternative treatments would not help me. By the time this realisation came, I was totally bed- ridden, and could not walk at all. I was 14- years- old when my father donated his kidney to me.
After the operation I was prescribed anti rejection medication so that my body did not reject the new kidney, and I recovered pretty well. Everything was fine for the next 16 years, till early 2007. I was working with big names like General Capital and Ing Vysa, in Bangalore, but I felt my life was incomplete. I began craving the company of my family and friends who were far away, and suddenly, being single in a big city such as Bangalore made me very unhappy. Depression began setting in, and I stopped taking care of myself. It just didn’t seem worthwhile anymore. The worst thing that I did during this time was to stop taking my anti- rejection medication. In January 2007 when I was working in Delhi, I realised how silly I had been. I went to the dentist for a root canal procedure. Routine tests beforehand revealed certain abnormalities. My blood pressure was high, and a blood test showed my cretenin count was down to 5— a major indication that there was something wrong with my kidneys. That prompted me to take action— my health was in dire need of help. The very next day I contacted Dr Gulati, and began my treatment. Because I had stopped the medication my kidney had failed again. My parents and sister rushed to Delhi to be by my side, and this time, my sister saved my life by donating one of her kidneys. I am absolutely fine now, my family is the reason I am alive. And now, I am not the only one with a single kidney— my sister and father share that pedestal with me!
THE SURGEON
Dr Sanjeev Gulati, is a senior consultant nephrologist, Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj. He says; Being born with one kidney is more common than people think. One person out of a 1000 is born with only one kidney— if you line up a 1000 people at a mall and start doing ultrasounds on them you will be surprised! And contrary to what people believe, one kidney is more than enough for a human being to survive. The human body typically tries to reject a new transplant. In Vivek’s case, he was very young when he received his first transplant. Being young he was able to cope with such a major operation.
The second time around, his sister donated her kidney to him. Tests were done to make sure that the blood groups of both siblings matched, and they did. Then Vivek and his sister were both admitted a day before the operation. The donor is operated upon using key- hole surgery. Two small holes are made in the abdomen and an instrument called a laparoscope is used to detach the kidney as well as the ureter. Thereafter the recipient is operated upon, and the kidney is transplanted within his body. The old – dysfunctional kidney is left in the body, and the new kidney is placed lower down in a new site. The ureter is attached to the bladder, and all the loose ends are tied up. The operation lasted for two and half hours, and both the siblings were operated upon simultaneously. Key- hole surgery allows the donor to leave the hospital in five days because it’s a simple routine operation. He may experience some pain, but can resume normal life within two weeks. The recipient obviously takes more time to heal. Vivek was discharged after 10 days, and we needed to keep a close watch over him daily for a month. That period is crucial as it is that time that the body might reject the transplanted organ. How ever there was no such problem with Vivek. He is a very lucky man to have managed to find donors within the family.
One should not be scared of donating his or her kidney to another person if need be, because you don’t lose anything by it, you only help another person live.
