Dr. Margaret O’Shea (right), head of the QEH’s surgical transplant team, speaking to the media during yesterday’s press conference. Left is Dr. Nicholas Inston, Transplant Surgeon with Transplant Links Community.
WITH 300 persons seeking treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) for renal failure, a nephrologist at the hospital wants to see a programme put in place to screen patients, with the view of stopping the progression to kidney disease.
Nephrologist, Dr. Nerissa Jurawan, was speaking yesterday morning at a press conference in the Boardroom of the QEH, to announce the success of the third living-donor kidney transplant performed by a team from the QEH and the United Kingdom-based charity Transplant Links Community on June 27. Dr. Jurawan raised the need for such an initiative as she expressed concern about the impact that dialysis treatment is having on the island’s lone tertiary hospital.
She made the point while noting that the incidence of kidney disease in Barbados is secondary to diabetes, hypertension and obesity and suggested that if those diseases are well controlled, then the progression to end stage renal disease is completely preventable.
“So what I would like to see in addition to this transplant programme taking off, is a programme where we can actually screen and prevent patients from progressing to chronic kidney disease due to these lifestyle diseases, so that we can help this burden from becoming any worse,” she said.
Jurawan added, “When I first came across to Barbados… I was shocked to see the burden of chronic kidney disease in Barbados and for a population of 300 000 it’s alarming. Currently there are 300 patients on dialysis and I can tell you that having been here a couple of months, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the resources are stretched to the maximum for those patients.”
Reflecting on the living-donor transplant programme, she said it has the potential to improve the lives of so many patients that are on dialysis. She added, that with surgery, patients can have a better life and a better chance of survival.
“So I hope this programme continues, because Barbados needs it, really, really needs it,” she stated.
With that in mind, she said, eventually, it would serve this country well to develop a deceased donor programme. Her comments came as she noted that given that Barbados is “riddled with diabetes and hypertension” and a lot of the patients, because it is a genetic component, cannot turn to relatives for kidney transplants as they are not suited to donate.
“So I think if we can in the long run develop that, that would be good for Barbados,” the nephrologist added. (JRT)