Kidney Patient Case Study

Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Also Included In: Urology / Nephrology
Article Date: 02 Jun 2007 - 1:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Helen Illes, from Berkhamstead, a kidney patient at the Oxford Transplant Centre, where she is campaigning to raise £5 million to increase resources at the world-leading center.

Helen's illness began subtly. One unforgettable day in a shoe shop, she noticed how deformed her feet had become. An hour later, Helen heard her hair stylist telling her to go to the doctor's immediately, as something was really wrong. "Suddenly I became scared," she says. "The doctor said something was wrong with my kidney. I was sent home to await the results of a blood test."

The results confirmed what Helen had been denying to herself for two years: she was seriously ill. One kidney had completely shut down, and the second was barely functioning; both were the size of raisins. Helen had 'end-stage renal disease' (ESRD) and went straight onto dialysis.

"Some people respond well to it, but not me," she said. First, she had to wear a neckline (or haemodialysis catheter, where the risk of infection precludes any showers or baths). "I felt so unfeminine with it poking out of my front." It was replaced a few weeks later by what is called a Cimino fistula in Helen's upper arm, a vein developed artificially to ease access to an artery.

"I lost weight, felt nauseous, lost my sense of smell and couldn't sleep because I could hear the blood pumping through this device on my arm," she said. Her eyesight began to deteriorate too. And she was only allowed to drink 600ml of liquid a day. Her reaction to the dialysis was so acute, Helen was eventually readmitted to hospital. After contracting MRSA and ending up in intensive care, even Helen's legendary strength of character almost buckled. Yet, there was a speck of hope on the horizon: a transplant. All Helen needed was a donor. Then - salvation!

"My young cousin in Austria offered me his kidney," says Helen, wonder still in her voice. Days later she and her cousin were being wheeled towards operating theatres in an Innsbruck hospital for a two and a half hour operation. The keyhole transplant operation meant her relative could return to his family after a week. But for Helen, it was like being born again. "I regained the senses I'd lost during dialysis. I started taking such delight in smelling the flowers in my garden at home."

Helen was referred by her consultant to Professor Peter Friend, Director at the Oxford Transplant Centre, and she quickly suspected she had stumbled upon somewhere special. She was right. Renowned worldwide, the Centre has carried out over 2,000 kidney transplants since 1974, and its post-transplant programme regularly monitors some 1,200 patients. Helen was soon visiting the hospital three times a week to have her blood taken, her urine and creatine levels measured.

Now Helen wants to give something back as well. So she's thrown herself into a campaign to raise funds for the expansion of the Oxford Transplant Centre. The aim is to double its size (and therefore capacity), and with diabetes on the increase in the UK, urgency is growing. Indeed, the transplant workload has more than doubled in the last five years alone. No wonder Helen is so driven. "Any one of us can be affected," she said. "But the staff know that, so cannot do enough. And in his own quiet very special way, Peter Friend is magical. With Oxford, I can see hope - I can see a future."

Oxford Transplant Campaign
www.oxfordtransplant.org.uk/

Helen has recently appeared on BBC World Service, BBC News 24 and BBC Breakfast news, talking about the Oxford Transplant Campaign.

Issued on behalf of Helen Illes by The YES Consultancy Limited, The Green, 29 Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU.

• Additional
• References
• Citations