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“When you find out that you are receiving a transplant, you realize that someone has had a great disaster. It works psychologically and at the same time forces you to keep a part of the person who gave you this thing.
It’s those feelings that are so double. You cannot rejoice over someone else’s misfortune, but rejoicing that fate has offered you such an opportunity means a lot to me. For all of us who receive organs, it is a true gift from God ”, Vida tells the news portal tv3.lt a few days after the operation.
PHOTO GALLERY. Prieniškė received a real miracle: “Great happiness when you are almost blind and suddenly you see”
The first transplant was unsuccessful
True, such a gift of fate was given to a woman not for the first time. Since the age of 18, Vida has had a congenital eye disease that has caused the corneas in both eyes to be crooked. His vision deteriorated over time and the worst case scenario would have meant blindness.
“Then there were different moments, the medicine was not that advanced, but my mother said – honey, we won’t stay like this, we have to go see what can be done. Yes, more than 40 years ago, in Odessa, I had my cornea transplanted for the first time.
In that case, he was not very lucky because the graft was a little too small compared to the area of the corneal injury. So then one edge went up a bit and it bothered me, I suffered a lot with that eye without seeing it, ”says Prieniškė.
She corrected vision for a long time with contact lenses, which helped to see with at least one eye, although that vision was not ideal:
“But he was there and I could already live, work.”
It took time to recover after the transplant
Still, in 2013, as Vida herself says, she performed a true miracle when a larger transplant was transplanted into an already operated cornea.
“I did not dare to do that long enough because an academic had convinced me that a larger graft would not really hold. But my children say the same, and I agree that things have progressed and now our doctors are not lagging behind foreigners, in some places they even lead. That is why I decided to have an operation and the transplant fit perfectly ”, smiles the interviewee.
She says it took her a long time to recover from the operation, but all difficulties were recovered with the ability to see well with at least one eye:
“It took maybe 4 months before I became a person without disabilities. Since this was the second transplant, the doctor was very careful not to have a rejection reaction. After a while, everything healed, got better. The most important thing here is to be patient, to understand what awaits you.
Although we solved that problem, the cataracts started to progress, we solved it too. Everything was in a row, very well arranged. And I’ve been working very easily lately just because I had a vision. “
The operation was encouraged by a colleague
Vida does not hide the joy of seeing with one operated eye was almost ideal, but over time, problems arose with the other eye.
“I have seen very well with that eye so far, but as they say, it is never enough for one person (laughs). As I managed to get a lot worse with one eye and the other eye with a contact lens, they queued me for a transplant, ”says a doctor who waited for a corneal transplant for another eye for several years.
She does not hide the difficult situation of the pandemic in the country, she felt a little intimidated when lying on the operating table, but since she is a family doctor and has already been vaccinated against Covid-19, she reassured her.
“I was really thinking about what would happen if I got sick, maybe the transplant wouldn’t like it. But I am vaccinated and my grandson tells me: “Grandma, you are very lucky, you are vaccinated and they offer you the operation, and you look pretty bad after the operation.
You know, the graft appears suddenly. You live, you live and suddenly a message falls on you like a clear sky, you have to quickly decide whether to agree or not. A colleague helped me and said that he was glad that life had lost that opportunity. And in fact …
Of course, there is no such vision yet, but it will be when the postoperative period has passed. I am really sure that everything will be fine, there is still no rejection reaction. If I hesitated to do it, I would still be blind, it would simply be illogical, ”says Vida.
Encourage others not to be afraid of operations.
Prieniškė does not hide the fact that he frequently visited ophthalmologists’ offices and went through many stages in his life, starting with huge contrast lenses and ending with modern contact lenses.
“My vision was saved for many years thanks to contact lenses, but over time it no longer helped me because it was badly damaged in the cornea. When I visited the office, I saw many young people tired and scared. I did the same. But don’t be afraid.
Fear is the only thing that prevents a person from achieving better results in life. I was able to live to the fullest, to work, to give myself, I was able to do everything as normally as other people, but precisely because I had my vision adjusted ”, says Vida.
She does not feel sorry for the beautiful words of the doctors who took care of her all the time and helped her live the fullest life possible:
“There are definitely great people who can help you at any time, and Dr. Almantas Makselis, who has operated on me now, is definitely a goldsmith. Now I look at my threads and I wonder how beautiful it is sewn, how beautiful that circle seems to me ”, the smile smiles.
There is no greater happiness than sight
Vida complains about this gift she received from destiny, she sees it and says that she cannot imagine greater happiness.
“I am 71 years old and I am thinking before the operation: God gave me one eye to see and Grandma thought I had two eyes. But I think there is still a lot I can do to help people, I am working hard to help them and I hope still be able to do it.
There really is no greater happiness than sight. I remember when I had surgery in Vilnius, when I wanted to see a doctor, I only saw his silhouette. Now I came a few years later and saw the doctor from afar.
I did not abstain and I said to him: I see you! Even now I want to cry … There is great happiness when you are almost blind and suddenly you see. I really want to say that people are not afraid of these operations, so that they can enjoy the vision that has been given to them afterwards, ”says Vida cordially.
Transplantation of both corneas is a common occurrence
The ophthalmologist and surgeon Almantas Makselis, who works in the clinics of the Santara University Hospital in Vilnius, tells the news portal tv3.lt that the cases in which both corneas of the eye are transplanted occur in practice, but it depends on the disease due to the one that the operation is performed.
“If you have an age-related eye disease, a cornea is most often transplanted. Diseases that begin in youth: corneal deformities, degenerations, some kind of genetic diseases, as a rule, occur in young people and are very progressive .
Usually both corneas are transplanted so that they have a good quality of life. Only to the extent that the transplants are carried out with a certain period of time. Both corneas are not transplanted at the same time, and when one is transplanted, at least one year must elapse after the first transplant, because if it is done earlier, the chances of rejection increase ”, says the specialist.
He points out that the success of a transplant also depends on the nature of the disease, since in some cases the chances of adherence are extremely high and can reach 90-95 percent, and in some cases it is immediately clear that the cure will be much older. hard:
“One of the conditions for a good transplant is that the cornea is free of inflammatory signs, without blood vessels, because the cornea is transparent like glass and has no blood vessels. This guarantees that there are fewer elements of the immune system that can simply react with the transplanted cornea and we can have rejection.
There are diseases in which it is practically guaranteed that you will know that you will have a rejection, so a much stronger treatment, immunosuppression, is administered immediately to prevent rejection ”.
In recent years, the number of donor corneas has decreased significantly.
Max says he notices that patients fear not only corneal transplants, but other organ transplants as well. The specialist emphasizes the importance of psychological support and preparation in such cases, which must be provided to patients.
“When it comes to vision-related or corneal transplants, people get along somewhat well with that poor vision, they adapt in some way and when the time comes when we have corneas, the people who wait in line are called say, a year or so, and very often they are denied because of the element of fear.
Very often and probably, we transplant corneas in people who are just in the queue or who have already undergone an operation because they are calmer. Then they readily agree that we should call them.
But there is also the fact that if a cornea is transplanted and a person already sees it, then priority is given to those people who have both bad corneas so that at least one has a good one ”, says the doctor.
He says that the Santara clinics perform an average of 24 corneal transplants a year, but the situation has been much sadder in recent years:
“We have had few donor corneas in the last two years and have performed quite a few surgeries, 14 a year. Basically, it all depends on the number of donor corneas we have.
Also here there may be a conviction of the people and fear. People often sacrifice the heart, kidneys, liver, and for some reason they do not consent due to the cornea.
Again, maybe it is related to myths, maybe people imagine that we are going to take the whole eyeball, there is nothing left there. But at the moment we are only taking the cornea itself. After that operation, cosmetically, nobody will realize that something was done there. “
Glad to give the vision back to others.
At that time, a specialist who performs corneal transplants does not hide that restoring people’s vision is invaluable to him, and the sincere joy of the patient becomes the best recognition and reward for the work.
“There is another morning or the next day after the operation, when you open your eye to a person and they are surprised, they say – wow, I see, I see you, I see colors, contours, what people, if it was very bad, I had not seen before.
That emotion of people helps to understand that you are not working in vain. Positive emotion is very motivating, here is the miracle of eye surgery, one of the reasons why I chose this specialty: you see the healing effect of your surgery.
The man comes to you unseen, you sit down, you did what was necessary and the man comes out happy. Practical out of the box. That is very gratifying ”, smiles A. Makselis.
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