The Gift Of Life

As my regular readers know my beloved sister-in-law has recently passed away. What I hadn’t made public was the fact that she was the recipient of a kidney transplant after the Gulf War. one of her kidneys had failed when she was in her teens and by the time of the Iraqi invasion, her remaining kidney was failing rapidly. The family tried to insist that she leave Kuwait to seek medical treatment but she refused to leave her family behind. Since all could not leave, she stayed behind, but as soon as the country was liberated and her precious brother (my husband) released from an Iraqi prison, she went to the UK for a transplant. All family members had been tested and no matching profile had been found, but the family had arranged for a donor from another source (the details of which I am unaware but imagine it may have involved some compensation to the donor’s family) and she got a kidney. That kidney allowed her to live for 15 more years and see her lovely daughters grow into accomplished university students, maash’Allah. Sadly, though, that hardworking kidney finally gave out in the past few months and even a rigorous dialysis schedule couldn’t save my dear sister-in-law.

What I want to discuss here, though, is the fact that my SIL had to go to London for a kidney transplant because the hope of getting a donor kidney in a Muslim country was slim. You see, although there was the technology to do the transplant organ donors were almost non-existent. In fact, even now — some 15+ years later — one would be hard-pressed to locate organs for transplant if one had to rely on Arab countries.

Now don’t get me wrong. Non-Arabs are not always so generous when it comes to organ donation. In fact, it has taken many years of public education and campaigning to get a decent organ sharing network in place in the American health care system. For every person willing to donate their organs after death there are countless others needing them to survive. In other words, the education and campaign to raise public awareness is an ongoing process.

I have been thinking about all these issues for some time and discussing them with my husband up until a few months ago when the family was considering the option of sending my SIL out of the country again for a second transplant. Unfortunately, she never regained her health enough to be able to do that. But even more unfortunate in my mind was the fact that she couldn’t get a transplant in her own country because of the lack of available donor organs.

So it was with great emotion that I read in The Peninsula about the family of a woman from New Zealand who donated her organs her in Qatar after she passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm. In fact, I remembered reading about a memorial service for this woman (who apparently worked at Education City) recently and was struck with sadness for the passing of a mother very close to my own age. The fact that her family decided to view her death as an opportunity to share the gift of life in this Muslim land far from their home, filled me with deepest respect and humility:

Despite a high number of chronic kidney patients in Qatar, the Organ Transplant Unit at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has received a lukewarm response from the public to its repeated pleas to donate kidneys, a senior HMC official said. Dr Yousef Al Muslemani, head of the Organ Transplant Committee, was speaking at a press conference on Monday, held in the presence of a Doha-based European family who came to the rescue of two kidney patients undergoing treatment at HMC. The two kidneys of the deceased mother in the family were donated to HMC, as per her wishes. They were successfully transplanted to an Omani and an Indian through surgeries conducted at Hamad General Hospital last week.

Muslemani said the Transplant Unit has been conducting only five or six kidney transplant operations a year, despite the high number of patients awaiting a kidney donation. “Currently there are 340 kidney patients undergoing dialysis at HMC. Though most of them require a transplant, we are not able to do it due to the unavailability of donors. There are 80 brain-dead cases at HMC every year, on an average, which means that there are 180 kidneys which can be transplanted. But due to the unwillingness of family members to donate, we are not able to utilise them,” said Muslemani.

He said there is social stigma attached to organ transplant, which can be removed only by educating the public. “It will take time to change the culture and mentality of the people,” he said.

Brain-dead cases are being preferred in transplant surgeries because the kidneys can be preserved and still functional for a period of three days up to three weeks. In the case of total deaths, the transplant has to be done within 30 minutes, which is nearly impossible considering the time needed to get the consent from families and complete other formalities.

Along with Muslemani and physicians from the Transplant Unit, Robert, husband of the deceased woman — Ann — and her son Allen and sister Christina were present at the press conference. The 50-year old Ann had been working with Weill-Cornell Medical College. She died of brain haemorrhage and had left a will to donate her organs to HMC. The family hails from New Zealand.

Muslemani said this was one of the rare cases at HMC where a family volunteered to donate organs. In most cases, HMC approaches the relatives of the deceased seeking their consent for a transplant. “This is a great humanitarian gesture and an example for others to follow,” he said. Robert said, the family members were not keen to know the identity of the people who received the kidneys. He added that he and other members of the family are willing to follow the example left by the mother.

Muslemani said the transplant surgeries were successful and the two recipients would be leaving the hospital shortly.

Insha’Allah, the selfless act of one non-Muslim family will make many of us consider becoming organ donors and giving that precious gift of time to someone whose days on this earth appear to be numbered.