The other day, while visiting a friend at one of the many hospitals in the UAE, I stumbled upon Ahmed, an 11-year old boy. He was all smiles as he sat, playing on an iPad, sandwiched between a 45-year old businessman trying to work on his laptop, and a 70-year old woman who was talking on her mobile phone to one of her grandchildren.
The three of them were trying to pass the time of yet another day while receiving dialysis treatment.
For four to six hours a day, three times a week, patients with kidney failure are attached to a dialysis machine.
Regardless of age, gender and background, all dialysis patients, including these three, usually have only one dream.
“If I get a new kidney, I will have more time to play with my friends,” said Ahmed.
For the businessman, he wants to spend more time travelling with his family: “It is undignified to be tied to a machine, and to live each day worrying if perhaps I will miss a dialysis appointment because of my hectic schedule.”
The woman also has one request: “Not to miss precious moments like the birth of my great grandchildren. I want to be there to help my family, but instead, I am a burden on them.”
Studies have shown long-term dialysis is associated with early death and medical problems such as fluid imbalances, muscle cramps, bone diseases and infection.
It also severely restricts quality of life, as patients need to always be close to a dialysis centre. All three of these people are on a long, very long, waiting list for a healthy kidney, and could end up waiting their whole lives and even dying before ever getting the new kidney they so desire. The illness pushes its victims to face up to very difficult facts.
The two older patients said that they know they are “low on the priority list” with children at the top. They understand why, as one can say they have at least had a healthy existence for most of their life.
At the time of their kidney failure, both said there had been “hard talk” of who can donate from the family members, and the pressures that causes for everyone as there are always risks to the donor. The UAE has one of the world’s highest rates of diabetes and hypertension – major causes of kidney failure – and the shortage of donors is only likely to get worse.
This is when organ donation makes most sense. Last year, the UAE performed the first organ transplant from a deceased donor.
The kidney of a Saudi Arabian man killed in a road accident in the kingdom was transplanted into Latifa Sai’ed, 23, from Al Ain, who had been on dialysis since the age of 7. She is no longer dependent on a machine to live a normal life.
Transplants were legalised here in 1993 but the law failed to include a medical definition of “death”, whether this was a patient being brain-dead or solely a victim of cardiac arrest.
The endorsement of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health and Awqaf (General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments) helped pave the way for organ donation that could benefit hundreds of patients across the country on kidney dialysis.
There was initially some religious reservations about organ donation and transplant, but the general consensus is that if the ultimate result is saving a life without costing a life, then it is supported.
Legalising organ donation helps curb illegal trafficking from poorer countries. Some recent reports suggest that Syrians in refugee camps are offering their organs as a means of survival – and there are those who are taking advantage of their desperate situation.
The National Transplant Committee here, which is a federal committee with a mandate from the Ministry of Health, is already working on introducing donor cards that could be tied to the Emirates ID.
Other countries have been doing this for decades – where driver’s licences have an organ donor section incorporated into them.
While it can be an uncomfortable question at the time, a decision to become a donor can save more than one life.
rghazal@thenational.ae
On Twitter: @Arabianmau