StarFit4Life, Sunday 11 March 2012 COVER STORY �

C.H. Bender, a 56-year-oldAmerican expatriate and pledgedorgan donor, had a stroke and wasdeclared brain-dead.

One of his kidneys was found tobe compatible with Lee’s body, andso, Lee had his second chance at life.“I can’t tell you how happy I was.My eldest daughter was the happi-est, she said, now daddy can carryus,” he recalls.

Lee got to see his daughters grad-uate with accountancy degrees lastyear. And now, he is slowly fulfillinghis goal of travelling around theworld, with Europe next on his list.

But his passion nowadays is rais-ing awareness of the importanceof organ donations and sharing hisexperiences with fellow kidney fail-ure and transplant patients.

His enthusiasm and commitmentis such that oftentimes his businesstakes second place to it, as clientmeetings are politely postponed toaccommodate talk and counsellingrequests. Fortunately, his clients arevery understanding.

“My grandmother taught me thatwhen someone helps you, you haveto pay it back,” he shares, addingthat what was important to himand his wife was not money,

daughters well.“Sixteen years of new life – eve-

ryday I wake up, see the sunshine,that is money already for me.”

Two times the miracleNor’asiken Lajis@Aziz, 49, struck

the organ transplant lottery, notonce, but twice.

As a newly-wed, she suffered amiscarriage due to high blood pres-sure. This unusual circumstancefor an 18-year-old led the doctorsto investigate further, and she waseventually discovered to have kid-ney failure.

At that time a Johor resident, shehad to come back to her hometownof Kuala Lumpur for treatment at theGeneral Hospital here, where shewas immediately started on dialysis.

“At that time, I was depressed,easily angry, moody and frequentlyurinating all the time,” she shares.

“I didn’t feel normal; I hated to bearound people, hated to talk to peo-ple. At home, I would lock the roomdoor and didn’t want to come out.

“I felt like God didn’t love me.”She admits to being a difficult

patient, frequently “running away”from the ward and pulling out herneedles. At one point, she even hadto be restrained on her bed by thehospital staff.

ma, the doctors warned Nor’asikenthat the kidney would likely lastaround eight to 10 years only.

True enough, eight years later, thekidney failed, exacerbated by themedication she had to take for a rarecryptococcal infection.

When that happened, Nor’asikenwas so depressed that she resignedher job at the Institute for MedicalResearch and just waited to die. “Ifelt so scared,” she says.

It was then head of HospitalKuala Lumpur’s (HKL) NephrologyDepartment Datuk Dr Zaki MoradMohd Zaher who showed her sometough love by scolding her, and thengiving her a job at the department.“He was like a second father to me,”she recalls fondly.

She was then on CAPD for 10years before her second miracle hap-pened – a pledged organ donor whohad been involved in an accidentand was declared brain-dead, was amatch for her! slightly damaged.

“The doctor asked my mother ifshe had taken anything while shewas pregnant with me, and she saidshe did, although I’m not sure whatit was,” he recalls.

At that time, he had been expe-riencing fever, swelling of his legs,vomiting and stomachaches.

But the good news was, hiskidney could still be treated withmedication.

Then, came his teen years.Sivakumar admits that he not

only played truant from schoolfrequently, but also completelystopped going to the hospital for hismedications and follow-up appoint-ments. “I thought I was alright,” he

But at the age of 20, he startedexperiencing the same symptomsagain. This time, both of his kidneyswere beyond rescue; he had to goon dialysis.

“I felt very bad, I cried everyday,I didn’t want to go anywhere andthought about dying,” he says.

“I told my sister I wanted to dieand she scolded me. She assuredme that I had God, that I will get akidney.”

Even then, it took him two tothree years to accept his condition.

With support from his family,Sivakumar diligently learnt how

to perform CAPD on himself, andtried his best to continue workingas normal.

But he drew his encouragementfrom the fact that he could at least,carry on quite normally, with theexception of having to undergodialysis.

“I see so many other people withdiseases where they can’t evenmove or go out, whereas I can goout and do things, I just have to cuci(perform dialysis),” he says.

Then, in January last year, hereceived the call that all kidney fail-ure patients hope for – a kidney hadbecome available from an organdonor.

“I was very, very happy; I calledmy whole family!” he shares.

Now, after the successful opera-tion, Sivakumar is relishing the free-dom of being able to go anywherewithout having to worry about hisdialysis.

He happily shares that he hasbeen on holiday to Langkawi, andhopes to be able to go to Singaporeto work, as long as he can getaround his family’s objections.

“Last time, I had nothing; now,I’m very happy – I got a kidney, Ihave a car. But have to take carealso – I must take care of the food Ieat, and drink the right amount ofwater.”

> FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Kidney replacement therapy

STARGRAPHIC©2012

Annual statistics on treatment of kidney failure patients

2001

Source: 18th Report of the Malaysian Dialysis and Transplant Registry 2010.

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

24,000

22,000

20,000

18,000

16,000

14,000

12,000

10,000

8,000

6,000

4,000

2,000

0

Dialyzing as at Dec 31New dialysis patientsDialysis deathsNew transplants

Patients

Years

Lee (left) celebrating the 15th anniversary of his kidney transplant operation at hKL with the nephrology department headdatuk dr Ghazali ahmad Kutty and Lee’s transplant “twin” Mohd azizi husain (right) last year.

and his wife was not money,but raising their

hospital staff.But fortunately forNor’asiken, her fam-ily members were

more than will-ing to donate akidney to her. Inthe end, it wasdecided that herfather would bethe one to makethe donation.

Thirty-oneyears later, shestill tears up asshe remembersher father’ssacrifice. “It was

the best gift hecould give me,”she says.

However,because of her

father’s asth-

match for her!She was so scared at this unex-

pected opportunity that she didn’tdare tell anyone, even her husbandor mother, for fear of it being unsuc-cessful. She only told them afterthe operation had been successfullycompleted.

Now, 12 years down the road,Nor’asiken keeps busy living life tothe fullest. As she describes her self,she is “sibuk dan menyibuk”.

Her days are filled with coun-selling fellow transplant patients,organising and participating incharity events, as well as manag-ing a kompang group and a seniorcitizen marhaba group, in additionto her day job as an assistant forthe Post Graduate Renal SocietyMalaysia based in HKL’s NephrologyDepartment.

“My life has been full of drama,”she says with a smile. “I’m just glad Ican share it with people.”

New lease on lifeSecurity guard S. Sivakumar, 32,

was only seven when his familyfound out one of his kidneys was

slightly damaged.“The doctor asked my mother if

she had taken anything while shewas pregnant with me, and she saidshe did, although I’m not sure whatit was,” he recalls.

At that time, he had been expe-riencing fever, swelling of his legs,vomiting and stomachaches.

But the good news was, hiskidney could still be treated withmedication.

Then, came his teen years.Sivakumar admits that he not

only played truant from schoolfrequently, but also completelystopped going to the hospital for hismedications and follow-up appoint-ments. “I thought I was alright,” hesays.

But at the age of 20, he startedexperiencing the same symptomsagain. This time, both of his kidneyswere beyond rescue; he had to goon dialysis.

“I felt very bad, I cried everyday,I didn’t want to go anywhere andthought about dying,” he says.

“I told my sister I wanted to dieand she scolded me. She assuredme that I had God, that I will get akidney.”

Even then, it took him two tothree years to accept his condition.

With support from his family,Sivakumar diligently learnt how

nor’asekin still gets emotionalwhenever she remembers herfather’s sacrifice in giving her oneof his kidneys. – rOhaIZaT MddaruS/The Star

Transplant patients need to be diligent about taking their medications everyday forthe rest of their lives, or risk their body rejecting the donated organ.