Five-Year-Old Boy Receives Landmark Kidney Transplant, UK

Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Also Included In: Urology / Nephrology
Article Date: 19 Oct 2007 - 4:00 PDT

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A little boy from Grimsby has a whole new future to look forward to after receiving the 50,000th kidney transplant recorded in the UK.

Five-year-old Kyle Nuttall had spent most of his life in hospital before the landmark transplant at St James's Hospital in Leeds earlier this month. When he was just ten months old he was diagnosed with pneumococcal haemolytic uremic syndrome, an infection which led to chronic renal failure.

In the years that followed he struggled with his growth and weight, and was unable to enjoy everyday foods like bananas and potatoes or even occasional treats like chocolate because of the strict renal diet he had to follow.

Now Kyle is looking forward to being able to go back to school, play with his friends, and enjoy a chocolate treat for the first time in almost five years.

"He's a different boy," said Kyle's mum Jeanette, 24. "Before it was such a huge worry watching him having to go through dialysis and not being able to do all the things other children his age would take for granted.

"He's missed a lot of school, but now he can look forward to being with his friends again in the classroom and playground.

"He has a future and I'm so happy for him and so grateful to his donor too. Without their gift Kyle wouldn't have the second chance he's been given."

Kyle's surgeon, Mr Niaz Ahmad said: "The fact Kyle's kidney transplant is the 50,000th of its kind in this country is a wonderful and significant milestone. We should not forget though that the number of people needing a transplant far outweighs the numbers carried out. We are only limited in this respect by the number of organs available."

Kyle's transplant follows closely in the footsteps of another milestone. In August toddler Erin Nicks received the 120,000th transplant to be registered in the UK on the National Transplant Database when she was given a new liver.

Last year alone a record 1,947 lives were transformed by a kidney transplant thanks to the generosity of donors and their families - helped largely by an increase in the number of living donor transplants which now account for around a third of all kidney grafts.

Yet there is still a desperate need for more donors. More than 6,500 people are actively listed for a kidney transplant, but in the last five years nearly 1,500 people have died whilst waiting for a suitable match.

Chris Rudge, UK Transplant Managing and Transplant Director, said: "This landmark transplant sends a message of hope to the thousands of people on dialysis waiting for a new kidney.

"Transplants save thousands of lives every year, yet the biggest obstacle to even more lives being saved is that four out of ten families do not allow their loved one's organs to be donated, often because they didn't know what their relative's donation wishes were.

"We know from our own research that a large proportion of people in the UK support organ donation, yet sadly not enough are acting on their good intentions, talking about their wishes with their families and joining the NHS Organ Donor Register. If more did then more lives could be saved."

An Organ Donation Taskforce established by the Department of Health in December 2006 has been investigating the barriers to donation and is making recommendations for consideration by ministers into improving donor and transplant rates in the UK.

Kidney transplantation is seen as a highly cost effective treatment when compared with the cost of dialysis and with predictions of increased levels of diseases like type 2 diabetes within the next decade, experts foresee additional need for donated organs for use in transplantation.

The National Transplant Database is managed by UK Transplant and includes details of all donors and patients who are waiting for, or who have received a transplant, including some of those carried out in the UK before the database was launched in 1972.

* You can find out more about organ donation and join the NHS Organ Donor Register by telephoning 0845 60 60 400 or visiting http://www.uktransplant.org.uk.

1. The 50,000th kidney transplant to be recorded in the UK on the National Transplant Database refers to kidney-only transplants and does not include kidney-pancreas transplants. It does not refer to the number of recipients, but the actual number of transplant operations registered on the database as some recipients will have had more than one transplant.

2. Kidney transplant milestones:

- 1954 First successful kidney transplant operation performed in Boston, USA
- 1960 First UK living donor kidney transplant, performed at Edinburgh
- 1965 First kidney transplant in UK using organ from a dead person*
- 1971 Kidney donor card introduced in the UK
- 1981 UK kidney donor card changed to multi-organ card including kidneys, corneas, heart, liver, and pancreas
* (earliest recorded by UK Transplant)

3. There are currently 6,538 people listed for a kidney transplant. Last year (April 2006-March 2007) 1,947 people underwent a kidney transplant, including 690 living kidney transplants where the recipient received their donation from a relative, partner or friend.

4. Living donor kidney transplants increased by 17% last year (April 2006-March 2007), representing around a third of all kidney transplants performed.

5. Kidney transplants are very successful. Graft survival times continue to improve year on year with 92% of deceased donor grafts and 95% of living donor grafts still functioning after one year.

6. In total more than 9,000 people in the UK need an organ transplant to save or dramatically improve their lives, but the shortage of donors means that typically just 3,000 transplants can be performed each year. More than 400 patients die each year while waiting and a further 500 are removed from transplant lists because they become too ill to undergo the operation.

7. The National Transplant Database is much more than just a list of waiting patients - it stores the details of all donors and recipients and transplant data is constantly being a edited and analysed to help monitor outcomes and therefore to help improve future patient care.

8. UK Transplant is the NHS organisation responsible for matching and allocating donated organs. It is part of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), a Special Health Authority within the NHS that manages the National Blood Service, Bio Products Laboratory, and UK Transplant.

http://www.uktransplant.org.uk