A long-lived kidney

The oldest transplanted kidney in the world has been working for a hundred years

Copper news based on the materials of the Daily Mail: The woman with the 100-YEAR-OLD kidney: 68-year-old has the world's oldest transplanted organ - and it's still going strong!

Sue Westhead, now 68, was diagnosed with kidney disease in the 1970s. The girl's condition caused concern, her own organs were functioning by no more than one tenth, and doctors decided to transplant a kidney. The donor was Sue's mother. Ann was 57 years old. The operation took place in Newcastle, in the hospital of Queen Victoria (Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary) in November 1973. Now the age of the kidney has reached one hundred years – and it still works.

The former patient said that at the time of the operation she felt very bad, moved with great difficulty and was all yellow. According to Sue, her mother gave her life for the second time. "It was a pretty scary time. I was lying in the ward, and people were dying around me. I remember thinking that I would be happy if I lived at least another five years. It was 43 years ago, and my kidney will turn 101 in November," she added. "I think it's because of my mother's good genes."

Doctors after surgery informed the family that the transplanted kidney will work for a maximum of 20 years, then a second transplant will be required. However, the organ is still functioning – perhaps not least because its owner strictly followed the recommendations of doctors and took 20 tablets a day to avoid kidney rejection.

Professor Derek Manas, president of the British Transplantation Society, said that Sue's case gives hope to those patients who are currently on dialysis and can inspire other people to become donors during their lifetime or join the Organ Donor Register.

A woman with a hundred-year-old kidney could get into the Guinness Book of Records, but, unfortunately, there are no official records of transplantation left. As a record, for example, in 2013, the case of John McCafferty was recorded, who underwent a heart transplant operation in 1982. He was promised that he would live for another 5 years — however, instead of 44 years, he died at 73 (in February 2016).

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  24.08.2016