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The National Transplant Office of the Ministry of Health interviewed Eglė Kadžiulienė.
Death that gave life
“Many people say that the day of the donor’s birth is their second birthday. Yes, it has been given a new life. For me, this is also the time to mention and honor that donor. There are very strong feelings that day, which I even describe myself again: I tremble as if I was moving to the day when the donor’s relatives gave me life, and they themselves experienced endless pain. They cry even today, remembering the loss, visiting the grave of the deceased.
I also cried for his donation for YES, just for the joy of being able to continue living. And that connection, the extroverted young man through the endless pain, the farewell and me in the operating room that the doctors are about to resurrect, is the sensitivity, the divinity and the exclusivity of the donation. There are no words in the world to thank for life-giving death. I am very empathetic and I am always very excited about it, ”begins the story E. Kadžiulienė.
As a member of the “Gyvastis” patient organization, which brings together people waiting for organs and living after transplantation, Eglė is an active advocate for organ donation and has repeatedly told his story in various meetings. This is always heartbreaking, not only ordinary listeners, but also the doctors who prepare donors and those who have to speak with the relatives of the outgoing Anapilin people are grieving.
“What strength for medical rescuers! You need to give them a big thank you; after all, they are doing such important but invisible work, says Eglė, who has seen with his own eyes the apparatus that declares brain death with one hundred percent reliability. At the same time, the woman perfectly imagines the reaction of her loved ones when she hears such terrible news. – After all, it always seems that maybe that person will wake up, maybe not say goodbye yet. Hope always fades, especially when the patient is young or even underage. “
Egle was especially moved by the recent case in Lithuania, when the parents of a dead young child agreed to donate his organs to be revived in the bodies of other babies: “Donation is an exceptional act. This is not a laboratory, it is not the purchase of an expensive drug. It is a gift from man to man, from heart to heart ”.
Doctors weren’t sure of success
Egle’s own life was spent in the forest exactly 13 years ago in Poland, where he was living with his family at the time and preparing to celebrate one of the most important holidays of the year. A twenty-five-year-old woman who had never complained about her health put her ten-month-old son to sleep in a crib that fateful Sunday night before the big week of Easter. The eyes of the woman who woke up in the morning were yellow. This resulted in liver disease.
Examinations were carried out on Monday and Tuesday, on Wednesday the woman’s condition deteriorated significantly, the liver stopped working, and a day later Egle suffered a coma in the brain and the woman was found in the intensive care unit. Due to the form of the lightning disease, Lithuania was immediately added to the express recipient list.
“And imagine, a donor showed up every day. It says that I was rescued by a guardian angel. The great week of Easter has become the great week of my life. I had a transplant on Sunday, but the doctors involved in the operation weren’t even sure if the body was already seriously poisoned when the liver stopped working. Life or death resulted in just a few hours.
If the donor had not arrived so quickly, the son would not have met me, he would only visit my grave at Easter, ”says a 39-year-old woman, who now says she has been with her for almost a year. son – fourteen years old and Eglė celebrates his second life.
The shape of lightning pierces the young
Later, Eglė will learn that the unexplained form of ultra-rapid liver failure is typical of young people under 30-35 years of age, and most often of women. Even postoperative studies could not explain the appearance of this disease.
“And that’s a bit shy, I would like to know why it happened to me, what a strong young person with a disability did to me,” said the interlocutor.
A few days after the operation, the young woman went into a coma and was kept in an extremely sterile room to avoid the risk of infections. In the corridor, relatives of anxious young patients were in a hurry to report the movement of their arm or leg, their eyes were open, they recorded every movement of the body.
And when Eglė consciously woke up after more than ten days, the nurse ran into the corridor to announce this happy news and cried out crying.
“I myself remember little of those days. This is already the case for those who experience a coma. It feels like someone has taken over and lost their memory as if they are hitting the “delete” button. I didn’t even remember that morning when I saw yellow eyes. When I told my relatives about it, it seemed as if I was watching a movie about me “, – in the long run, Eglė wrote down the details of his life on a piece of paper – so as not to torture his loved ones with his questions.
Doctors work miracles
While still in the hospital, Eglė discovered that a girl even younger than her had become a donor in a car accident.
“The calamity happened when I, connected to the device, counted the last hours of my life, I was already with God on one foot. Since then, I have not been able to listen quietly to the news about the death of young people in traffic accidents. And not one by one dies … I complain all the time. Because I know that my liver was donated to a person who was injured in an accident, ”says an interviewer interviewed by the National Transplant Office.
Eglė, who has been living with a transplanted organ for thirteen years, cannot boast of his previous health, although his friends from fate, whose liver has been transplanted after hepatitis or cancer, often recover and feel good after the transplant, some even return to work. and exercise. This is due to the poisoned organism before the operation. However, the woman does not complain and assures that she would like to thank Airida Buivydiene, the doctor from the Santara clinics who supervises her that year.
“It is enough for me to see their good eyes and I will feel better in no time. Your care and peace of mind do wonders! For the opportunity to live, I am grateful to both the donor and the doctors, who are still tirelessly seeking a cure for me and fighting my immune system, ”says Eglė that she and others living after a liver transplant call doctor of Santara Clinics a “mother of livers”. The interlocutor does not doubt that it is thanks to Dr. A. Buivydienė that he still lives with this transplanted organ.
And if disaster strikes you …
When talking about donation and ways to promote it, Egle is silent for a moment and then says, “Of course, it is everyone’s determination and right to have their own opinion. Donor loved ones rescued me by saying YES. My parents did not bury their little daughter, I returned with my son and had the opportunity to raise him. Although I am more limited but alive, I enjoy being with my loved ones.
And if the doubting person thought at least for a moment that it could happen to his son, mother, father, husband, wife … After all, misfortune can occur at any moment, illness can strike and a loved one he would find himself. on the verge of death, and the doctors might say that you can’t help anyone, it would be saved just by the donor organ …
At the time of disaster, neither wealth nor age can matter, the Pope himself can be, but if the donor does not appear, there will be no return to the family, there will simply be no life. And the loss affects not only you, but also family, relatives, friends who know you. And it is only through donation that tears and pain are replaced by joy when a loved one (father, son, grandfather) can live again. Donation is benevolence, human compassion, that divine YES ”.
The waiting list is long
Liver transplants are one of the most anticipated, according to the National Transplant Office of the Ministry of Health. In the year that the heroine in the article underwent a liver transplant in Poland, 6 patients received this organ in Lithuania.
Over the years, this number has increased slightly: 14 in Lithuania in 2020. Unfortunately, the waiting list is much longer: currently, about 90 seriously ill patients are waiting for a liver transplant.
Let’s not wait for illness or disaster to hit our home. Anyone who has reached the age of majority can consent to become an organ and tissue donor after death. This can be done online at https://ntb.lt, medical institutions, Eurovaistinė pharmacies.
