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Sarah Lamont, 36 years old, is an inspiring testament to the notion that mothers will do anything for the love of their children. Lamont, who’s a single mother of three children, will give one of her kidneys to her four-year-old son, Joe, the Mirror reports.
Joe was born with a polycystic kidney disease. When he was delivered, his kidneys were removed immediately after birth due to the fact that they were enlarged and damaged. Joe had been living off of dialysis since then.
Recently, Joe had to undergo a life-saving surgery that required a part of his mother’s kidney. The surgery between the two happened on the same day, although operated in different hospitals.
Sarah said, “I know I shouldn’t have crept out without doctors saying OK, but I was desperate to see my wee boy. So, I got the nurse to take me off the painkiller drip and went over in my dressing gown and pajamas. I paid for going to see Joe by being pretty poorly for two days.”
The family lives in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. Joe has two older siblings: Max, who’s 12, and Eve, who’s 10.
Sarah said, “I had quite a bit of wound pain and felt washed out, but I don’t regret going. He is slowly getting there. He’s still got discomfort from where they operated. But, importantly, there is no sign of rejection of my liver.
“His recovery will be slow because he has no kidneys and is still on dialysis. This is just the first stage of curing my little boy. He needs a kidney and then he will be like any other four years old.”
I’ve been there and done it once and now I’m ready to do it again. This was the tougher and more dangerous of the two [operations]. So much of my energy has been focused on helping Joe that Max and Eve, are having to grow up fast.
I’ve been torn between wanting to do the best for all my kids. As I went down for the anesthetic, I couldn’t help thinking that I could be saving Joe and possibly leaving them all orphaned if I died donating.”
Dr. Paulo Muiesan, the doctor who removed the liver section from Sarah, said, “She’s a very courageous lady. She has not only Joe to think about but her two older children. We cannot be seen to be putting pressure on people to be live donors, particularly when they are single parents like Sarah, but it was she who came to us saying she wanted to give.”
Dr. Khalid Sharif, Joe’s transplant surgeon, said, “What a magnificent lady. She has been so determined to help Joe. He was on our list for a liver and needed one sooner than later, but we can never be sure when we will get a dead donor organ. There are always more children needing transplants than organs. Transplantation from a live liver donor is rare but not uncommon."
He continued, “What is particularly unique in this case is that Sarah will be offering both her kidney and part of her liver, as a combined donation. The courage of parents and relatives who give organs to loved ones is a real inspiration to our teams.”
According to Mirror, live donation has to be done with the utmost speed, as the organ can only live disconnected from the body long enough to be transplanted into another one.
Sarah said, “Joe was on the transplant list for a liver but there is never any guarantee that one will come from a dead donor. Joe was a ticking time bomb. I decided something had to be done. I didn’t know about live liver donation.
"I looked it up and then asked Joe’s doctors. People ask why I didn’t donate earlier. Joe’s liver has been bad for over a year. I think the doctors were anxious about broaching live donation to a single mum, so it was left to me to ask them.
"These things generally don’t happen instantly. There were a lot of discussions to make sure that I was aware of the risks and to make sure that I had no doubts.
“And then there are all the tests to make sure you are match. Amazingly, although I’m related – and you can be a non-related donor – I only just scraped home on tissue-matching. If I’d failed one of the tests, the transplant wouldn’t have happened.”
Organ transplant is a very complicated process. Although it is definitely live-saving, it can still be pretty dangerous if a small single mistake is to be made.
