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SINGAPORE: Doctors at the Singapore General Hospital successfully performed a dual-kidney transplant last December, in what's believed to be a first for Singapore.
Housewife Susan Ong finally got a new lease on life, after waiting eight years for a transplant.
The 54-year-old mother of two had kidney failure and had to undergo 12 hours of dialysis treatment every week.
It all changed last December, when she became Singapore's first dual-kidney transplant success story.
Ong said she was scared and worried, but placed her trust in the medical team and went ahead with the operation.
"We performed a dual-kidney transplant because we anticipated that the functional capacity of a single kidney from an older donor will not be enough for our recipient," explained Dr Terence Kee, a consultant at the Department of Renal Medicine at the Singapore General Hospital.
"So with careful assessment of the donor, with respect to function and structure, we decided that we would place two kidneys into this recipient."
This is made possible by changes to the Human Organ Transplant Act last November, with more kidneys made available for transplants. Doctors can now harvest kidneys from a person who has died and is above 60 years old but did not pledge organs for donation.
In such an operation, doctors remove two kidneys from a deceased donor and transplant them.
This usually takes one to two hours more than a single-kidney transplant surgery.
Following Ong's successful transplant, doctors have performed another such procedure last month.
More kidney patients like Ong will benefit from the availability of dual-kidney transplants as an option.
Going forward, doctors say they expect to perform more of such procedures.
- CNA/yb
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