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Surviving with one “dead” kidney
Mable Atemo lying helplessly on a dialysis machine. COURTSEY PHOTO
What you need to know:
Lying helplessly on a dialysis machine, Atemo needs Shs70m to have a kidney transplant
It is her 130th day on the dialysis machine and for 17 months now, this girl has a slim idea of what water tastes like. Her health problem has robbed her of normal meals, an average teenage lifestyle and an opportunity to further her studies.
Looking at her lying pale for the two-hour dialysis treatment is disheartening. Before we even start our interview, she tells me her six-month period for the treatment is long overdue. Her body is becoming very weak for the machine, making her susceptible to other complications.
When Mable Atemo’s body started swelling in October 2010, she was scared and immediately told her mother about it. “The swelling began with my stomach, my feet, constant headaches, before taking over the entire body,” the 25-year-old Atemo says.
“At first, we thought it was because of worms but when the swelling persisted, we went to Panaroma Medical Centre and the doctor recommended a scan which revealed it was kidney failure. It was the last thing on our minds at the time. I was personally ready for anything but kidney disease,” Yayeri Adiko, Atemo’s mother, says.
The worst part for the Information Technology graduate and her single mother was finding out that she wasborn with just one kidney and it had ceased functioning. through her childhood, none of them had a slightest idea about this revelation. They were just finding out now.
“It is normal for someone to have one kidney and still survive with it. Although those are rare cases,” Mable’s doctor, Emmanuel Ssekasanvu, says. It was then that reality struck Adiko and her daughter. Atemo needed a transplant but meanwhile she had to depend on the dialysis treatment to keep going.
Dialysis is a treatment meant to regulate sugar levels and sieve blood in the body; it acts as an artificial kidney. Atemo has to undergo this twice a week, each time costing about Shs700,000.
The medical expenses at Panaroma medical Centre were however, high for them. Dr Ssekasanvu advised them to go to Mulago Hospital. “I had just quit my job as a media trainer to begin a project with a friend, and here I am supposed to foot expenses amounting to about Shs3m per week,” Adiko says. It was time to begin looking at all possible avenues to save her daughter – the toughest bit being finding a kidney donor.
Confinement a in the hospital
Meanwhile, life at Mulago Hospital seemed to get tougher each day, considering upkeep, accommodation and the sickening environment. So they decided to go back home and commute to hospital for the treatment as they forged a way forward. “I offered to donate my kidney without a second thought. Mable is my first born daughter and I couldn’t imagine seeing her suffer. The least I could do was offer a part of me,” says the mother of two.
The offer did not come to pass though, as it turned out Adiko was no match as a donor for her daughter. Besides her age, some of the tests just rejected her. Kidney donors are often between 25-50 years. They were back to zero and yet all possible options were hard to come by.
The year 2011 seemed to be closing in well though since in December, the stars shined down on Atemo. After all the seven potential donors were disqualified during the tests, her cousin was like a Godsend. It was a heavy relief for the family.
Like anyone else would imagine, the hassle of finding a donor for any body part is the trickiest part because it robs you of the hope, faith, belief and positivity.
Atemo says the news of finding a donor was like learning to breathe again. “A brush of relief swept across my heart and even though the burden of raising money for the transplant is overwhelming, at least I have some hope. I can afford genuine smiles now and I am more positive than before,” she says.
With the donor available, Atemo needs Shs70m that is required to carry out her kidney transplant in India. As I walk her out of hospital to the point where she will use a boda boda to get to her home in Mengo, Atemo tells me all she longs for is the day she will be in India for that transplant so she can live a normal life again.
“My dreams have been stalled. It is as though I am living two years behind. My friends, family and people have come out to help but everything still seems static.” Even when the family thinks they are getting close to raising some reasonable money, it always reduces since they always have to spend the same money on the dialysis treatment.
Now with the doctors giving a different angle on the progress of her health and the time lapse for her dependence on the machine, Atemo’s family is getting desperate and hopeless. They have only Shs3m raised so far, and yet they need Shs70m.
