15-yr-old undergoes successful kidney transplant after mom donates organ

Jan 08, 2016 News

Fifteen-year-old Abigail Mars is recovering at home after undergoing a successful kidney transplant at the Georgetown Public Hospital, and she is proud that her mother was the donor that gave her a second chance at a normal life.

Abigail Mars

In 2011, Abigail was diagnosed with Nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disorder that causes the body to excrete too much protein in a person’s urine. Since then she had undergone several dialysis treatments at the hospital, but her condition started deteriorating a year ago when her family was told that she would not make it unless she underwent a transplant.
‘I was scared, but I was hopeful, and then we heard that the hospital was doing free surgeries,” her mother Petal Grant said. She stated that the doctors told her that both of Abigail’s kidneys were failing and she would need the emergency surgery or else she would have to live on the dialysis.
Grant stated that it was painful watching her daughter undergo dialysis for four years, so she opted for the surgery, but the major problem was finding a donor. She said it was easy to do the surgery but it was difficult to find the donor. “But I wasn’t about to get hopeless. I prayed and decided to donate one of my kidneys,” she said, smiling at her daughter.
However, a few days before the surgery was scheduled to be performed, Abigail’s kidneys failed and she went into cardiac arrest. “I was afraid that we were going to lose her, but she pulled through and now we here,” she said.
The surgery was performed on December 10, last. It was carried out by Dr Kishore Persaud. Last year, a team of local surgeons performed their first-ever kidney transplant surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital. Dr Persaud was the surgeon spearheading that team.
“I’m happy that I was able to give my daughter the best gift,” Grant stated, adding that it was painful watching her daughter suffer every day and it is her hope that other people would step out and donate their kidneys to a greater cause.
“We need to move forward and help people who are in need. The organ donation legislation would be a good thing for this country, because it will help save a lot of lives like my daughter’s,” she said.
Public Health Minister Dr George Norton had stated that the ministry was looking at developing organ donation legislation in order for patients to undergo life-saving surgeries.
He had indicated that there are a lot of potential donor tissues going to waste in the hospital’s mortuary. However, he stated that while some persons may want to donate their tissues and organs to science, many of their families would not approve of it.
“We are still evaluating such a legislation even though it is not high on our agenda,” he added, stating that there are many capable surgeons in Guyana to carry out such transplants.
Nephrotic syndrome is usually caused by damage to the clusters of small blood vessels to the kidneys that filter waste and excess water from the blood, which in turn causes swelling in the feet, ankles and increase risk of other health complications. (Jeanna Pearson)