They receive two kidneys each from stroke victims aged 62, 70

TWO women have become the first recipients of kidneys from dead people aged over 60, since the age limit for such organ donations was lifted last November.

They scored another first – each received two kidneys.

Their operations at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) were on Dec 21 and Feb 12, after the donors died from strokes.

The first recipient was housewife Susan Ong, 54, who received the kidneys of a 62-year-old.

The second recipient, who declined to be named, was a 37-year-old petrol-station cashier, whose life-saver was a 70-year-old.

Given the age of the donors, doctors transplanted both kidneys into each of the recipients. Usually, only one is transplanted.

Dr Terence Kee, a consultant with SGH’s department of renal medicine, said a kidney from an older dead donor works at one third less capacity than that from a young donor.

Two older kidneys will work as well as, if not better than, a single younger organ, he said.

The kidneys are usually transplanted to one side of the patient’s body to lower the risk of complications from having to re-route several blood vessels.

The world’s first such double-kidney transplant was carried out at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York in 1993.

Here, the move last year to change the Human Organ Transplant Act (Hota) to allow organs of donors aged above 60 to be used in transplants has yielded another 10 to 12 donors of various organs each year.

This puts about 70 patients with various failed organs on track for a new lease of life.

If the age limit for donors had not been raised, the two women recipients would have had to continue dialysis treatment and would have remained on the waiting list for kidneys from younger dead donors.

The alternative would have been to go abroad for a donor.

Dr Kee explained, however, that organs from older dead donors have to be tested, as not everyone is fit to be a donor.

Tissue samples have to be drawn from potential transplant organs to test for tissue compatibility, function and for signs of infections or cancers.

Once the organs are cleared for use, the surgeons must work fast, as older kidneys lose their function more quickly, said Dr Tan Yeh Hong , a consultant urologist at SGH.

The race is then on to find a suitable recipient who is willing to accept older organs, he added.

Madam Ong, on dialysis since 2001, was the sixth patient on the waiting list to be offered the kidneys. The five before her did not want the older organs and also did not want to be the first to have a dual-kidney transplant here.

The mother of two children in their 20s recalled: “When I got the call at 5pm on Dec 21, I was anxious and, at the same time, hesitant. It took me half an hour to ponder at home and another two hours at the hospital to make up my mind.”

Her son and daughter convinced her to accept the offer.

“They said the doctors here are careful and well-trained and that Singapore’s medical technology is modern,” she said.

Surgery began at 11pm that same day.

She told reporters yesterday that her first thought on regaining consciousness was that she was done with dialysis.

She said: “I was going for it three days a week, for four hours each time, for almost eight years, and each time I would feel sick – faint or tingling in my legs. I am glad it is now over.”

Her nightmare began with a urinary tract infection and cysts in her bladder in the late 1990s. By 2001, she was in end-stage kidney failure.

“I hope my experience will help convince others on the waiting list that there is nothing wrong with accepting older cadaveric kidneys,” said Madam Ong, who now can drink up to 13 glasses of water a day, up from the half a cup a day previously.

The waiting list for kidney transplants now has 460 names on it.