Cape Town - It was 2004 and Dionne Mountain of Kuils River was studying towards her business management diploma at a Cape Town private college, when she was diagnosed with kidney failure.
After being on dialysis for three years she desperately needed a transplant and was lucky her father, Ike, was a match.
But the lifespan of her new kidney was not long, due to hypertension. Last year she received the bad news that it had failed and she needed a new kidney.
“I was devastated when I heard the news. I was put back on dialysis, and my name was put up on the transplant waiting list for the second time. My mother went for tests and was also a good match, but she had just turned 60. Doctors said it would not be a good idea for her to donate at such an age.
“My brother was also tested and was a good match, but he also couldn’t donate after he tested positive for hepatitis B. It was like a double blow for me,” she said.
After being on the transplant list for exactly a year, there is still no indication of when Mountain might receive a donor kidney.
But she is not the only one waiting for an organ as the country battles with a shortage of organ donors.
Samantha Volschenk, executive director of the Organ Donor Foundation, said more than 4 000 people in the country were awaiting organ transplants. Fewer than 600 transplants are performed in the country’s public and private hospitals a year, resulting in many people dying while waiting for life-saving organs such as kidneys, livers, hearts, pancreases and corneas.
With August identified as Organ Donor Month, the foundation is getting ready to sign up as many people as possible as organ donors, to reach the 50 000 target it has set for this year.
Volschenk said despite the need for organs, the number of donors remained critically low at less than 0.2 percent of the population of 53 million people.
This was a far cry from the US, which had 37 percent of its population registered as organ donors and Australia which had 24 percent as donors, she said.
“We must admit that this an extremely shocking and low statistic for South Africa.
“An even greater problem is the increasing number of people worldwide who die of end-stage organ failure,” she said.
Volschenk said many were dying as they didn’t qualify for lifesaving transplants or dialysis.
“They are sent home to die without any hope whatsoever,” she said.
During August the foundation will raise awareness about donation and encourage people to become organ donors.
Visit www.odf.co.za or call toll free on 0800 22 6611 for more details. - Cape Argus
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