New Dialysis Unit in Leicester, UK

 If you live in roughly the middle of England, this news is for you!

A new unit has opened at Genisis Park , South Wigston, and it's called Leicester South Dialysis Unit. It's job is to replace the facility at Leicester General Hospital.

It opened on 26th August, 2024.And has all the features you'd expect for such a unit, including a section where patients can be trained in home dialysis. Bonus!

So you are probably thinking this is an expansion of a hospital or an existing small facility, but you'd be wrong. It was, of course, a warehouse! Planning permission was granted in November 2022, and it is now run by University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL). Currently, UHL manages eleven dialysis centres, caring for around 1000 people.

A few more details can be found in the links below.

Link 1: https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/warehouse-south-wigston-converted-kidney-8743114

Link 2:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4y187lqd5o

 

Mother Receives New Kidney From Daughter

When her mother needed a new kidney, her daughter stepped in and and got tested for compatability.

Now when you give someone you love a new kidney, you'd like the date to be memorable, and easy to remember as well. So when Dishna Hirani was offered two dates for the operation to donate to her mother, it was easy to choose which date to use. Because one of them was her mother's birthday. So Prevanda Varshani received quite a wonderful present from her daughter!

Apart from a few complications, overall the operation was a success.

Living donors are apparently not too common in the Asian community, and her mother was initially a bit hesitant about it. Perhaps this successful operation will encourage more people to do the same. A donation like this is not against the family's religion (they are Hindus) but it seems many are not aware of this option. They hope that more people of Asian, and African, heritage will consider the option of living kidney donation. And also sign up to donate organs if they die in an accident.

Recipient of first pig kidney transplant dies

It has been a hope for a long time that transplants of organs from animals to humans would one day be possible and help solve the problem of finding a donor that matched the recipient.

And Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston announced the world's first successful transplantation of a genetically modified pig kidney into a 62 year old man with end stage kidney disease, in March 2024.

Richard Slayman was recovering well from the four hour operation and was expected to be discharged soon, reported the hospital after this new milestone in kidney transplants. This raises hopes that more work can be done to genetically modify kidneys and other organs from pigs for humans.

Richard left hospital in April. Hopes were high for a successful outcome of this major event in the world of transplanted organs.

However, on May 11th, it was sadly announced that Richard had died after two months with his new kidney. We should not take this as a major setback - Louis Washkansky, the first person to received a heart transplant, died after 18 days, due to pneumonia as his immune system was weakened by the drugs administered to avoid rejection.

Let's hope that further research will lead to this concept becoming successful and save lives regularly, just as has happened with heart transplants. Remember, the first successful kidney transplant was back in 1954 and look at how common they (and heart transplants) are now.

Wife donates Kidney to Husband!

 Well, this man certainly made the right choice when he proposed to his partner 25 years ago!

Donna Creed gave her kidney to her husband Darren who was suffering from polycystic kidney disease. When his medical problems got worse over the 12 years since being diagnosed, he was advised to look for a donor and started with family members. But amazingly, it was his wife who turned out to be a match. Doctors told them it was a one in 22 million chance that they were a match!!!

What an amazing gift she gave him. Love does help a bit when deciding should you be a living donor or hope for the more common donation from a generous person who has sadly died.

You can read more about this story on the BBC News website. The couple are planning a charity event in September to raise money for the PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease) charity.

Footballer player's fund donates £250,000 to Kidney Charity

 While on holiday, famous England footballer Andy Cole was infected with a virus that attacked his kidneys. In 2015 this superb athlete suffered kidney failure and his life was at risk. In 2017 he received a transplant kidney from his nephew. This set of life-changing events inspired him to set up a fund and to donate £250,000 to charity to further research into kidney disease and associated problems, including mental health issues.

You can read about his story here at Kidney Research UK and also in the Manchester News .

The story highlights how even a super fit athlete can have major problems - similar to what happened to Jonah Lomu who's story is also featured in this blog and here as well.