/ 25 November 2016

Saved from the hands of death

Organ recipient Mosa Mphore now works to educate others about organ donation and health through the Open Eye Foundation.
Organ recipient Mosa Mphore now works to educate others about organ donation and health through the Open Eye Foundation.

As a young man of 23 in the prime of my life, I had never been previously ill a day in my life except, of course, for the occasional flu. I had heard of people having kidney problems before, but had absolutely no idea what it meant to have renal failure until I was diagnosed with it. Never did I imagine that I would one day be severely ill, with an end-stage disease, in need of a transplant.

I had been admitted to an over-crowded and understaffed hospital ward for further observations and tests, and felt as though I had been thrown into the hands of death itself. I continued to feel this way for a couple of days; fragile, scared out of my wits and probably starting to show signs of distress, when a kind doctor came to my bed and checked my file. He sympathetically explained to me that my tests had come back indicating that my kidneys were no longer functioning normally and that I would be undergoing some extreme (and possibly brutal) emotional and physical changes over the next few months due to this illness.

He also said that I would soon be starting a treatment called dialysis which involved spending some time being hooked-up to a machine for a couple of hours each day, for a couple of days a week, to help eliminate some of the waste and toxins building up in my body. He said that I would ultimately be placed on a kidney transplant waiting list. He said the latter in a tone that indicated that this was something that could reverse my condition; something to be really hopeful about.

I felt a bit relieved, but also confused and overwhelmed by this influx of new information that was being presented to me. I did not know what to make of my diagnosis, this dialysis treatment that threatened to alter my physical and emotional wellbeing; and I was eager to find out more about this transplant list that he had spoken about.

I was admitted for a further three months to a hospital while undergoing hemodialysis treatment. During this time I took it upon myself to learn as much as possible about my condition and to find out exactly what it meant to be placed on the transplant waiting list. I learned that a kidney transplant was another treatment for end-stage renal failure, where a kidney is surgically removed or sourced from an altruistic or cadaver donor to take up the function of the failed ones in the recipient.

I also learned that there is a very long list of people waiting for various organs, including lungs, pancreases, livers and hearts — but mostly kidneys — with the demand for these organs greatly surpassing the actual supply due to a severe shortage of organ donors in the country. I found this quite alarming and frightening. There was just no way of telling when a suitable donor would become available.

I found myself reaching out for everything positive that would encourage me to keep on living, as I could feel my life slowly slipping away.

I had lots of questions and couldn’t understand how a healthy young man like myself could end up with such a fatal illness, and wondered how this painful ordeal could have been prevented. I began to wonder how many other people (my age or younger) have gone through and will probably go through this painful ordeal too, because of a lack of basic health education.

Two fundamental questions were in my mind when I was in hospital: why do patients have to wait so long for transplants, and why there are so few organs available for transplant when there are so many traumatic deaths in South Africa?

Most importantly, I wondered how I could possibly prevent this from happening to someone else. The only answer I could come up with was that it was up to me to make the change. I decided to make a difference in people’s lives by sharing my story and attitude towards living life with kidney failure, and what a journey it has been!

In 2011 while I was in hospital, I made a pledge to save at least one other person from this ordeal, so I established a non-profit organisation called Open Eye Foundation to educate people about acute and chronic illnesses that lead to the damage of vital organs. Open Eye also raises awareness in underprivileged communities about the life-saving benefits of organ donation, mostly demystifying the many myths that black people have concerning organ donation and transplantation.

I had been on dialysis for two years when I received the call from the hospital to say that they had a matching kidney from a cadaver donor waiting for me, and that I should come in for a transplant! Walking into the hospital that day knowing that my life was about to change for the better felt absolutely surreal. I couldn’t believe how fortunate I was to be receiving this transplant in what I consider was a very short time. I will forever be grateful for it, because not many patients living with organ failure have been awarded the same opportunity that I was.

Life has been total bliss since then! I am now the father of two beautiful children and I’m set on helping others with organ failure receive the gift of life through health education and spreading awareness about organ donation.

Mosa Mphore is the founder of the Open Eye Foundation