Kidney transplant donor and recipient tell their stories of how operation changed their lives
- Susie, a kidney organ recipient, and Jan, a kidney donor, share their experiences on the different ways the procedure affected their lives
- Nearly 500 million people globally suffer from some kind of kidney problem or damage, leading to millions of premature deaths every year
In 2016, Hong Kong had more than 9,000 patients undergoing various forms of renal replacement therapy (RRT), procedures that replace the normal blood-filtering function of the kidneys, according to the latest figures from the Hong Kong Renal Registry.
Most were men and around half were on peritoneal dialysis that uses the lining of the abdominal cavity and a specialised solution to remove waste products and extra fluid from the blood. Around 1,500 were on haemodialysis, where a synthetic membrane, or dialyser, does the job.
There have been about 3,000 kidney transplants performed in Hong Kong since the first operation in 1969, where a man named Ng Ho-bun received a kidney from a 19-year-old girl who died after an emergency operation.
The first ever successful kidney transplant was conducted by American plastic surgeon Dr Joseph Murray in 1954, between 23-year-old identical twins. Richard Herrick, who was dying, received a donor kidney from his brother, Ronald, in an operation that lasted five-and-a-half hours.
Richard enjoyed an active and full life post-operation and died eight years later from causes unrelated to his transplant. His twin Ronald died 56 years after the operation.