Mother Donates Kidney to Son in Record Surgery

A 42-year-old mother on Friday donated a kidney to her teenage son diagnosed with end-stage renal disease in a record five-hour surgery in Abuja.
A 15-member surgical team at Garki Hospital, Abuja--Nigeria's first experiment with public-private partnership in healthcare--performed the surgery Friday morning under lead of renowned transplant surgeon, Dr Nadey Hakim.
Hakim is surgical director at West London Transplant Unit at Imperial College.
The surgery, followed widely on social media, is the second series he's led at Garki Hospital, but the hospital's own surgeons could take over future transplants in about a year, it is hoped.
Friday's surgery was faster than the nearly eight hours the team spent on the first surgery earlier this year in a two-stage kidney transplant--removing kidney from a father and transplanting it into his 19-year-old son.
It took just around five hours to complete both stages for the 42-year-old mother who donated a kidney to her son, Hakim said, because the staff had become used to the procedure and instruments.
"The fact that we have managed to do that with the help of the nurses and doctors shows we will be able to do many more in the near future, now that the routine has been set," said Dr Hakim after stepping away from the operating table.
"I am quite optimistic with the help of doctors and staff here, we will be able to do many more."
In a year
Since kidney transplants started last year at Garki, which funds the kidney transplants and open-heart surgeries, its doctors are getting more confident handling high-precision surgeries.
"Perhaps in a year's time, we can do it without him [Hakim] being present, but he will always be on the end of a telephone line," said Garki's medical director, Dr Elijah Miner, who assisted on the surgery alongside two other surgeons.
He is expected to take the lead on the hospital's next kidney transplant while Hakim assists.
Kidney transplants are among top conditions that fuel the exodus of Nigerians for medical trips abroad.