Now,those long days in hospital are a distant memory. In March,the 10-year-old received a kidney transplant donated by his father Fadi, enabling him to get back to doing what he loves most.
10-year-old Amir Kabaha is one of the lucky ones to receive a kidney transplant.Steven Siewert
“I feel a lot better than before ...[I can] play soccer,and run around,” Amir said. “Dialysis was very annoying,I didn’t like tubes,and it wasn’t very nice.”
Amir is one of the lucky ones. Transplant rates during the pandemic,leaving thousands of Australians stuck on dialysis while organ donations struggle to keep up with demand.
Just 857 kidney transplants were conducted in 2021,down from a record high 1149 in 2018,according to data from the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry.
Numbers recovered slightly to 937 last year,including 319 in NSW and 371 in Victoria,but the drop has coincided with fewer families allowing their loved ones’ organs to be donated when they die.
Only 54 per cent of families agreed to follow through with organ donation in 2022,a significant decline from the pre-pandemic rate of 62 per cent.
“We have the resources in hospitals to do it – we just can’t find the donors,” said Steve Chadban,a Sydney-based transplant physician and co-chair of the National Transplantation and Donation Rapid Response Taskforce established in March 2020.
The Taskforce was behind the decision to from living donors early in the pandemic.
Dr Darshan Sitharthan,a urology registrar at Bankstown Hospital who presented the figures at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons conference in Adelaide this week,said patients’ lives were on hold while surgeons worked through an elective surgery backlog triggered by the pandemic.
“There are thousands of patients who are searching for a suitable kidney donor and stuck in dialysis,” he said. “Talking to these patients who come into dialysis three times a week,something as simple as someone opting into organ transplant can change their life.”
In the five-and-a-half years Angela Charalambous has waited for a transplant,she has never once been offered a kidney. She said the disruption caused by the pandemic has only added to the uncertainty and left her waiting longer than she ever could have imagined.
“You’re relying on a computer algorithm to change your life,” she said. “Dialysis is a difficult gig ... your body’s not really designed to be kept alive this way.
“I often feel like I’m too young to feel this old.”
Angela Charalambous has waited five and a half years for a kidney transplant.Edwina Pickles
Kidney transplants account for about half of all organ donations in Australia each year. Around 1800 Australians are on the waitlist for a transplant,and an added 14,000 are on dialysis,according to the 2022.
“Almost certainly the majority of those would be better off with a transplant,it’s just that we can’t find enough organs to transplant those people,” Chadban said.
According to the Organ and Tissue Authority,eight out of 10 families give consent when their family member was a registered donor,but that falls to only 4 out of 10 when their family did not know their intentions.
Transplant Australia chief executive Chris Thomas said Australia had fallen behind other countries on organ donation,and needed to make it easier for families to have the discussion earlier in life.
“If the first time a family is confronted with the prospect of organ donation is when they’re around the hospital bed with their loved one on a ventilator ... it’s no wonder that so many families decline in that grief-stricken moment,” he said.
Associate Professor Shilpa Jesudason,a nephrologist at Royal Adelaide Hospital,said there had been an increased focus on protecting dialysis and transplant patients,who often have suppressed immune systems and “remain among the most vulnerable people if they get COVID-19″.
Charalambous said organ donation was still a taboo subject for many families,but gave people the opportunity to potentially save a life.
“Whilst their journey for whatever reason[comes to an end],they can still do something amazing and give a gift not just to that person,but their families,” she said.
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