After finding an unknown donor on Facebook, a woman finally got the kidney he promised her.
Judith Bélair-Kyle’s operation took place on December 1 and everything is going well so far. The organ started working as soon as the operation took place, whereas the process can normally take a few days.
It fulfills its task about 70%, which is a good mark for someone with only one kidney.
“In terms of creatinine which is the waste products produced by the muscles, I am at 86. The normal for a woman of my age is between 50 and 100 so it is fabulous! I could not have hoped for a better kidney,” she said.
The donor is doing just as well. Two days after the operation, he was back home.
It’s a miracle that makes more than one dream.
“When I shared her story, I was like, ‘hey, I need a transplant too, I just had my transplant too’… All kinds of stories. I said, “well, let’s see then? What is happening ? Are there as many people who need a kidney transplant?” said the coordinator of the Canadian Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation, Luisa Miniaci.
In 2021, 27 people in Mauricie needed a kidney transplant, while there were 620 in the entire province.
The process is long and arduous, but it is necessary for a better quality of life.
“I feel much less weak, much stronger. I even started to cook, which is silly, but I didn’t do it before the operation. I just no longer had the taste, the motivation to do small projects like that,” explained Ms. Bélair-Kyle. “Every day it gets better and better. I had a tougher time because I take a lot of mood-altering drugs and I didn’t expect that. At the beginning, when I had a transplant, I had a week where I had a lot of anxiety,” she added.
The average waiting time in Quebec is more than 500 days before receiving a kidney from a deceased donor.
For the polycystic kidney disease foundation, what would help is that one automatically becomes an organ donor upon death, which could allow others like Judith to dream of their future.