The ninth annual UAE Healthy Kidney 10k race was held in New York last month, with the funds it raised going towards helping the millions of Americans suffering from kidney disease. The event was created in memory of the UAE’s founding father and first President, Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who had a kidney transplant in America in 2000, and the nation donates to the cause every year. Gulf News was in the Big Apple to witness the action, as well as to meet up with some of the key figures behind the battle against kidney disease and hear the inspiring stories of sufferers and donors.
New York: Pure statistics on the number of kidney transplants carried out each year can only ever tell half the story — it’s the people behind the stats that make the wonder of organ donation come to life.
Take American Richard Ormand, who can now expect to live a much longer and more comfortable life thanks to the generosity and bravery of his daughter, Gina.
Richard, a kidney disease sufferer, had known for many years that he would eventually need a transplant, but was reluctant for either Gina or her younger sister Jill to be the donor as he didn’t want them to put themselves in any danger.
But, with the help of the UAE-funded Shaikh Zayed Tower Transplant Centre at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland, the minimal risks and all the procedures were explained and the family decided to go ahead with the operation. Richard and Gina went under the knife in May 2012, the transplant was a success and now they have a fascinating story to tell.
“It was something I really wanted to do,” Gina, who marked the one-year anniversary of the transplant by running in the UAE Healthy Kidney 10k in New York, told Gulf News.
“The very first time we talked about it was about a year after my Mum passed away from cancer, so my sister and I only had one living parent and we both wanted to do whatever we could to save his life and improve his quality of life. I have read a lot about transplants and a lot of people say they felt called to do it — that they knew they were going to be the donor — and that’s how I felt. I always knew in my heart I would be a match and that I would be the donor, and I knew the surgery would be successful. I felt very confident.”
Gina, who was aged 30 at the time of the operation, spent just four days in hospital when donating a kidney to her father and she insists the only changes it has brought to her life have been positive.
While Richard is now in far better health, she has suffered no ill effects and the only physical evidence of her sacrifice are two small ‘battle scars’, as she calls them. And she hopes her participation in the New York race — she completed the hilly Central Park course in 1:04.28 — will inspire others to become organ donors.
“It’s so great that the race raises awareness about kidney disease and transplants and maybe it will encourage more people to be donors, which is something both my Dad and I would love,” she said. “It was such an easy procedure. The recovery was so quick, it was nothing compared to the wonderful gift I was able to give my Dad, to give him such a great quality of life.
“If anybody is ever considering donating a kidney to someone, you will never regret that decision. It’s a great, great gift.
“My life hasn’t really changed since the surgery. I lived in Washington, DC, at the time but I moved to New York earlier this year — I think it inspired me to make positive changes, try new things.”
Richard, now aged 65, was full of praise for Gina after her bravery in helping him extend his life in the absence of wife, Sandra, who died aged 56 in 2006. And he too called on more people to sign up as organ donors to help the millions of other people who are in the same position he was before the transplant.
“I think what my daughter did is such a courageous thing and something that I will always remember and respect her for. She was fearless, never hesitated and always knew she was going to do it,” he said.
“I’m walking around with my daughter’s kidney and that’s a pretty remarkable feeling because, when we’re together, you forget that this was her kidney. That forms a bond between a father and a daughter that is like nothing else.
“I would encourage families to donate kidneys. My daughter has done beautifully — she’s strong, healthy, active and it’s like she never gave a kidney. Organ donation is important and people need to do more of it. It brings the family closer together.”
Finally, Richard reserved some praise for the UAE and Shaikh Zayed, whose funding paid for the transplant centre in Baltimore.
“Shaikh Zayed’s name will stay with me forever. What he did as far as creating the magnificent building at Johns Hopkins and allowing these surgeries is wonderful. Shaikh Zayed was a name, before we decided to do our surgery, I didn’t know. But once we decided to do it there, I read about him and the UAE and we will always be extremely grateful for the gift that he gave, because it is one of the greatest hospitals in the country and now it has one of the best transplant centres in the country,” he said.
(Martin Downer, Deputy Sports Editor, Gulf News.)
