Nigeria records first paediatric kidney transplant

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Nigeria has recorded its first paediatric kidney transplant. It was performed at St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos. The feat was made possible by the donations for Nathan Kidney Foundation and Transplant Links Charity, United Kingdom (UK).

St. Nicholas Hospital provided the medical expertise to operate on 13-year-old student, Master Joseph Iniovsa. He was operated on by the duo of a transplant surgeon, Dr. Ayo Shonibare and a nephrologists, Dr. Ebun L. Bamgboye.

Master Iniovosa, a JSS 1 student of a Lagos-based secondary school, can be described as very fortunate. This is because he has been receiving one form of palliative treatment since he was six years old for sundry illnesses, at Massey Children Hospital, Lagos. That was until last year April when he was diagnosed at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba with end-stage kidney failure.

His mother, 45 year-old Mrs. Funke Iniovosa, a petty trader and mother of five was devastated by the news that her last baby may die if either of two options is not quickly adopted.

She sought out the two options for her last born. She was told that the boy may benefit from dialysis, and will need to undergo three sessions in a week or transplant.

Dialysis is an expensive procedure which cost an average of N25,000 per session, N100,000 per month and over N4,000,000 per year.

A woman of great faith she is. With no money in her purse, she hit the roads and each week, she kept taking the boy to the Life Support Dialysis Centre, Ikeja for dialysis with what she, friends and well wishers could put together. And there, one day, early this year, fortune smiled on her and her boy. The President of Nation Kidney foundation, Mrs. Foluke Mobereola, picked interest in Master Iniovosa.

She actually sponsored his dialysis, thrice weekly for nine months and later discussed his case with other board members of the Foundation and the decision was taken by the eight members to provide the money for the transplant required by the boy because dialysis is not a life time solution to kidney failure.

Nathan Kidney Foundation is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit making and non-partisan association. It was put in place by Mrs. Mobereola under the auspices of St. Nicholas to help people with kidney disease or failure in various walks of life.

But the major challenge facing the foundation is raising fund. Its mission is to improve awareness of the prevalence of kidney failure; raise funds and provide assistance for the funding of dialysis and kidney transplants for the less privileged.

A kidney donor was required and Mrs. Iniovosa volunteered but for her age and other medical examinations and results, she was declined.

The second son of Mrs. Iniovosa, Joseph volunteered and donated his kidney. This was after he was enlightened by Dr. Bamgboye that a person with one normal kidney can actually live with same because that will function optimally like two healthy kidneys will do.

And by the second week of last month, the duo of Dr. Shonibare and Bamgboye put their scalpels and expertise together and gave Master Iniovosa a new lease of life in form of grafted kidneys. That made it the 86th kidney transplants at the hospital.

The first was done on March 6, 2000. The patient, popularly called Alhaji has continued to survive on his transplanted kidney and often serves as a counselor to other intending transplant patients.

The Administrator of St. Nicholas Hospital, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Osikoya, said the major reason why the hospital decided to put in place the Foundation was to create awareness on renal impairment, organize awareness campaigns and raise funds from the general public from within and outside Nigeria, for issues concerning contemporary problems, challenges and the treatment of renal failures.