THROUGH THE SHIFTING CLOUDS OF FEARS & WORRIES
“Doctor, you mean both my
kidneys are not functioning at all and I have to be on dialysis for three times
a week with each time covering 4 hours for the rest of my life unless there is
a possibility of me receiving a healthy donor kidney or advances in medical
science?”.
NKF - Plight Story - Vanita |
This was a question posed by a bewildered 21 year old Vanitha
a/p Veeramugam to the nephrologist standing beside her ward bed in 2004 at the
Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) in Kuala Lumpur after the doctor had
laid down the bare truth as to the cause of her illness.
She was earlier rushed to the medical centre upon an urgent
referral by a medical group in Klang where her mother had brought her for
treatment following a recurrence of continuous bouts of vomiting, diarrhoea and
loss of appetite. 2 weeks prior to the
referral she was admitted to the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang for
observation after she had similar signs of illness. The hospital in Klang after warding her for
treatment and observation for a week discharged her.
Alas, she had recovered with dialysis which took much of
her working time as an operator in a Japanese company in Shah Alam where she
had worked after passing her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) in 2000. Ultimately,
after having being on medical leave for finding a diagnosis to her kidney
failure and for her dialysis she had to quit her job.
All this while, UMMC carried on in providing dialysis and
at the same time advised her family to look for a dialysis centre which charged
lesser fees for the treatment. In the midst of such activities, her maternal
uncle, in addition to helping pay for the fees in dialysis and medication by the medical centre, managed to
secure financial assistance for her from Tzu Chi, a Buddhist Foundation. Later,
after a few months he managed to get for her “Pencen Ilat’ under the social
security organisation, SOCSO to pay for the dialysis treatment.
In the search for a dialysis centre, there was found a
vacancy in Pusat Dialisis NKF – Bakti (Klang) which was near her place of
residence. She is indeed very much
appreciative of NKF which she said, “gives a high standard of treatment with
its staff members creating a family-like atmosphere to bring about a cosy and
close relationship among not only the patients but staff members themselves.”
To-date, she has remained single, staying with a married
younger sister with 3 children and a husband in Taman Sentosa, Klang. She has declined the offer of her mother
donating one of her kidneys to her even though there was found compatibility in
the matching of the older woman’s kidney with her body system for she feared for
her mother’s suffering in the aftermath of the transplant. However, she would
be prepared to accept a compatible kidney from any donor who is a non-relative.
She is now settled in her routine of dialysis and when she
is not dialysing she helps her sister in cooking as she loves to cook and keeps
herself busy by watching television programmes.
For light relaxation, she loves going cycling in the park of the housing
estate and treats each passing day as a wonderful gift.
Members of the public can pledge to donate their organs
with the organ donation promotion unit that the National Kidney Foundation of
Malaysia (NKF) had set up at the Sunway Pyramid with the support of the Sunway
Group.
For
more information on these and future NKF activities or to donate towards the
organisation’s efforts, please visit http://www.nkf.org.my or call 03-7954 9048.
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