“I am a lucky person: the kidney transplant was the best thing for me”

Kidney transplants have been carried out at the Linz Elisabethinen Order Hospital for 50 years – this procedure is carried out around 60 times every year. “We have been treating patients with chronic kidney failure in this way since 1974. Our transplant center is one of four in Austria, along with Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck,” says Michael Girschikofsky, medical director of the hospital. Around 700 organ transplants take place nationwide every year, 400 of which concern the kidney.

“Transplantation is the very best treatment for kidney failure,” says Primary Daniel Cejka, head of the Department of Nephrology and Transplantation Medicine. “Dialysis – blood washing that those affected have to undergo – is life-sustaining, but very time-consuming, comparable to a part-time job,” says Cejka. The average life expectancy of a 50-year-old patient with kidney failure who is receiving dialysis is only eight to nine years. “With a transplant, decades of life can be saved.”

The average waiting time for a new organ is currently three and a half years. “Despite the contradictory solution, the number of donors in Austria is unfortunately too low,” says the doctor. He would like to see more potential organ donors reported by doctors to the appropriate authorities. A quarter of the kidneys donated at the order’s hospital are so-called living donations. “Friends, relatives and partners are always willing to donate.” The rest of the organs come from deceased people.

Complex operation

If an organ is allocated to the clinic in Linz, specially trained staff take care of processing the donation, planning the operation and communicating with patients.

“My colleagues and I are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” says transplant coordinator Tamara Holzinger-Hammer. If a suitable organ is available, the procedure can take place. “A transplant is always a complex operation in which the most modern techniques are used,” says Primar Matthias Biebl, head of the general, visceral, vascular, thoracic and transplant surgery department. The results are very good.

Success rate at 99 percent

Almost 99 percent of the kidneys that are inserted start working because the previous checks are extremely strict and therefore there are fewer rejection reactions. This time is very stressful for those affected.

“The nursing staff supports the patients with discussions in order to reduce fears and worries,” says Christa Pfleger, ward manager in nephrology.

With a “new” kidney for 24 years

Linz’s Rudolf Brettbacher, chairman of the Upper Austria Kidney Association, explains how positively a kidney transplant can influence life. The 64-year-old has had type 1 diabetes since he was seven.

From 1990 onwards, the first impairments in kidney function became apparent. “Due to my history, late damage such as effects on the eyes, nerves, blood pressure, blood circulation and the kidneys could not be avoided,” says Brettbacher. “The light at the end of the tunnel for a life worth living or for life at all was getting smaller and smaller. In the time before the transplant, I was feeling very, very poorly.” In the year 2000 – on a Good Friday – the redeeming news came: in Innsbruck he was able to have his kidney and pancreas transplanted. Since he had already met a transplant patient five years before his operation, he was not afraid. “The transplant was a blessing and the best thing for me. Since then, I have been healthier than before and was able to work full-time in my job until recently. Now I am retired and I know: I am a lucky person.” (bar)