From left: Dionne Timothy, Dr. Nerissa Jurawan and Pamela Whitehall.
Love is more than a feeling, it is an action, and Dionne Timothy got the rare opportunity to show her mother, Pamela Whitehall, how much she cared in a true act of love and kindness.
Pamela Whitehall, a 63-year-old who works in a laboratory, was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease at the age of 19. In 2011, her kidneys failed and she was put on dialysis for seven years.
Whitehall explained that during this time, she was extremely weak at times, she lost a lot of weight and her skin colour darkened as she became sicker.
She expressed how even though it was a difficult time, she was blessed to have colleagues who would fill in for her when she was too weak to complete her workload and a family that rallied behind her.
In 2017, Whitehall heard about the kidney transplant programme and proceeded to ask one of the nurses for more information and direction.
She said that the nurse happily set everything up for her to be a part of the programme and the next step was to find a compatible donor.
Unfortunately, her husband was not compatible and so her daughter and husband went in for testing and it turned out that her daughter was compatible.
“I didn’t really have to ask her, but I was a little reluctant to ask because the thought that crossed my mind was what if she donated a kidney and something happened because she has two young children,” she said.
Dionne Timothy, a 38-year-old tutor at the Barbados Community College, was quick to say that the decision was an easy one for her to make and they had the operation on June 19, 2018.
The mother and daughter recalled how smooth the operation went, from the testing to post-operation care.
Timothy, who was the kidney donor, was in the hospital for three days and Whitehall, the recipient, stayed for two weeks.
She noted that once the initial pain of the operation passed, everything was back to normal and the only lifestyle change she had to make was drinking more water.
Whitehall said that since the operation she had more energy, and the only thing that had to change was the fact that she could no longer play hockey as it was a contact sport and they could not risk her being hit.
The 63-year-old believed that even though dialysis played a part in sustaining her life, the quality of her life was able to improve with the transplant.
She strongly encouraged persons to be careful with their health, as many of these non-communicable diseases were preventable.
Echoing her mother’s sentiments, Timothy added that she would encourage anyone on dialysis or with kidney disease to consider the transplant programme.
“Take your time and research, but consider it because the changes are amazing,” she said.