![]() ![]() Santiago feared something bad would happen to his mother as a result of undergoing a voluntary surgery, which Koffron said is one common misconception that often keeps people from becoming living donors. Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / Santiago Castro Camacho with his mother Maria Castro Camacho at their home in East Ridge on Friday, May 7, 2021. Maria jumped at the opportunity to be his donor, Santiago said, but he still wasn't sure. Santiago remembers struggling to keep food down and his tongue turning white - signs of kidney failure.ĭoctors said Santiago was a good candidate for a kidney transplant, but he would have to wait the estimated seven years for a new one or find a living donor willing to give one of their kidneys to him. By the end of April 2019, his health had rapidly declined. and back to Mexico every six months to visit family and friends.Īround February 2019, lab work showed the effect of the medications fading and his kidneys beginning to fail. ![]() He took medications and continued his active lifestyle, traveling around the U.S. Santiago didn't know that he was sick when he was diagnosed with kidney disease about four years ago, and at first his condition didn't slow him down. However, kidney transplants at Erlanger are the only type of organ transplant now offered in the Chattanooga region. In addition to one kidney, living organ donors can donate a lung, or a portion of the liver, pancreas or intestine. Nationally, only about 20% of kidney transplants come from living donors, he said. Koffron said he hopes to reinvigorate living donor transplants in the Chattanooga region in order to help meet the growing demand. "That's why it's more important than ever for the donation to be considered, and for people to understand the increasing need for organs." What has changed is that the amount of people that need kidney transplants has increased, and our ability to keep people with renal failure alive longer has increased," he said. "The amount of people that either donate kidneys through living donation, or when they have an adverse event and become an organ donor, has remained largely flat over time. ![]() "If there's somebody that can donate a kidney and get you off dialysis and healthy again, and that's regardless of the costs of society maintaining your dialysis during those years of waiting, it's a superior form of renal replacement therapy."īut Koffron said the demand for kidneys far exceeds the supply. So, timing is very important," Koffron said. "If you have to wait five years for a transplant - five times 15% - means there's a high likelihood you're not going to make it to your transplant. Treatment typically takes about four hours and must be performed three times per week. That's because about 15% of dialysis patients die due to complications each year, and dialysis can greatly limit one's quality of life. Alan Koffron, director of transplant and hepatobiliary surgery at Erlanger Health System, said that although dialysis can treat renal failure temporarily, transplantation is always preferred. The only treatments for kidney failure are dialysis, which uses a machine to perform the kidney's function of filtering blood, or transplantation.ĭr. Kidney failure, also known as renal failure, occurs when the kidneys are no longer able to perform their job of filtering and cleaning blood, causing waste and toxins to accumulate in the body. ![]() I prefer to wait the seven years,' because I don't want my mom undergoing this kind of surgery." Everything is going to be fine,'" Santiago said. "She would tell me, 'I want to give you the kidney. So when it came time for Santiago to need a transplant, she wanted to try again to be a living organ donor. Maria saw firsthand through her brother Medardo what could happen to a person who had to wait too long for a new kidney, and she feared Santiago would face the same fate. "When doctors told them the result that my mother wasn't matched with him, it was very sad for both," Santiago said. He was 24 years old at the time, just like Santiago. But they weren't a match, and Medardo died waiting on a kidney transplant. Decades prior, 15-year-old Maria had tried to donate one of her kidneys to her brother Medardo, whose kidneys were failing. Maria's thoughts returned to one of her darkest childhood memories. But due to a shortage of available donors, doctors estimated it would be seven years before a kidney became available. The medications that her eldest son, 24-year-old Santiago Castro Camacho, was taking to keep his kidneys functioning had stopped working, and he was forced to go on dialysis.Ī kidney transplant was the best option for Santiago's long-term health, and he was placed on a waiting list for a new organ. Two years ago was the worst Mother's Day of Maria Castro Camacho's life. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |