How organ donations have transformed lives

To mark National Organ Donor Awareness Month, organ recipients at Tygerberg, Groote Schuur and Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital have shared how their surgeries and the ongoing medical care by the hospitals have changed their lives.

Over a 10-year period, the hospitals have performed over 659 adult and paediatric transplant surgeries, which include heart, kidney, cornea and liver transplants.

Groote Schuur Hospital patient, Dr Dominique Brand from Oranjezicht, received her liver transplant from the hospital in 1993, when she was 10 years old.

Brand, now 39, has gone to live a full life and is a proud PhD holder.

She also owns a research, monitoring and evaluation consultancy.

“This year, it will be my 30-year liver transplant anniversary.

“In the last few years, I have started to enjoy running and hiking, and later this month I am going to hike the Mont Blanc in Europe, which is 170km in the Alps in Switzerland over 10 days.

“I enjoy maintaining my health and what I can do with my healthy body, which for me had to come a bit later in life,” she said.

Fourteen-year-old Aloshay Arendse from Kraaifontein received a combined liver and kidney transplant in January.

Her mother, Candice Arendse, said: “The journey has not been easy, getting a transplant is never a quick-fix to anything.

“It’s a lifetime dedication for parents as well as you will have to support your child through everything until they are able to do it themselves.

“For my daughter growing up, she was limited to most things as she was diagnosed while still a baby.

“I would say 60% of her life she has spent admitted to hospital.

“But now having had a transplant, she is able to do most things, she is able to play netball and to live like a normal 14-year-old and that is the positive impact transplantation has had in our lives,” Arendse said.

Executive Head of Surgery at Tygerberg Hospital, Professor, Elmin Steyn, who has participated in over 1 000 transplants locally and internationally over 35 years, said: “Being a transplant surgeon is a huge privilege, as we do surgery that changes people’s lives for the better.

“The limiting factor is finding those precious ‘spare parts’ that are desperately needed. There were several recipients who have stayed in contact with me, and it has been heart-warming to keep track of their progress.

When they get married, have babies or graduate and achieve their ideals, I am very happy for them.”

Dr Tinus du Toit, a general surgeon at Groote Schuur Hospital who has participated in about 400 kidney transplants and 100 liver transplants, said every recipient’s story was unique.

“When confronted with the challenges that patients face on a day-to-day basis, one can’t help but feel humbled by the opportunity to have a positive impact as a team. Often, the patients who were in most desperate need of a transplant, and those who have suffered complications from the procedure, stay imprinted in our minds and drive us to understand more, do more and do it better,” said Du Toit.

Cape Times