Father’s love: I donated my kidney to my daughter
“People have been telling me ‘You’re so brave’, but I keep telling them that I’m not the brave one, my dad is. He gave part of himself so that I could continue with life. I underwent a successful kidney transplant surgery thanks to his generosity. He is my hero. I can’t thank him enough for what he has done. All I can say is, may God bless you, dad,” starts 14-year-old Keren Wacici Gioko.
When Keren was diagnosed with acute kidney disease in 2014 at the age of five years, her parents were shocked since this is a disease they had never witnessed in their families.
“It all started with tonsils. She was given medication. Before she could finish her medication, her face and legs started swelling. We couldn’t understand why and we thought the swelling would subside on its own. This never happened. She then started experiencing fatigue and lack of appetite. This now made us take her to the hospital. After tests were done on her, she was diagnosed with acute kidney failure,” says her father, Stephen Gioko.
Though the diagnosis was disheartening, the family was determined to see her through medication. They did everything possible to ensure that she was seen by the best doctors, got dialysis as required, and she adhered to the advised diet. Luckily after three months of peritoneal dialysis, she got well and the family was relieved. But this relief wasn’t for long.
Only way out
Eight years later, in May 2022 hell broke loose for this family. Their daughter was again diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). CKD also known as chronic renal disease, is a condition characterised by a gradual loss of kidney function over time. It can progress to end-stage kidney failure, which is fatal without artificial filtering (dialysis) or a kidney transplant.
To slow down the disease progression, she was put on hemodialysis immediately. She was on dialysis twice a week. Unfortunately, even with dialysis, there was no change. This is when the family was informed that they needed to start planning for a kidney transplant as that was the only way out.
This was a shocker to her father who knew that for one to receive a donated kidney, they needed to part with huge amount of money, which the family did not have. However, since that was the only way they could have saved her life, the family embraced the idea and sought advice and directions from the counsellor and transplant coordinator.
“We were told to look for a relative who could donate a kidney. We were lucky to get two family members to volunteer, but unfortunately, because of the age limit, they couldn’t be accepted. The hospital needed someone who was above 25 years and the two hadn’t reached that age,” he adds. Willing to save his daughter’s life, Gioko went back to the hospital even without informing his wife and asked if he qualified to be a donor. Luckily all the tests conducted turned out positive. He was a match. Once he was told that it is possible he went ahead and volunteered to donate one of his kidneys.
After learning that he could save his daughter’s life, the next thing that was required was to raise the money needed for the whole process, which was about Sh2 million.
The family organised a fundraiser and luckily they managed to get this money. Upon getting the money the two were ready to start the transplant process.
No regrets
“I did vigorous transplant tests for about five months and my kidney was declared compatible with the receivers. When they gave me the news that I was healthy and able to donate my kidney to Keren, I could not hold back my emotions. I felt so relieved. Being a donor match meant I could gift my daughter a second life,” says the father of three.
The two were admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital on 17th May this year (2023) and the transplant process was done two days later. The seven hours surgery went smoothly, and Gioko returned home after four days while his daughter was released 14 days later.
Now Keren is living a relatively normal life with her new kidney. Besides taking antirejection medication every morning and night and staying hydrated, she is like any other vibrant girl
Gioko says that organ donation at first sounded scary, but since he couldn’t sit and watch his child in agony, that is why he decided to do it. He does not regret his decision. To ensure that nothing went wrong during the process, he listened to the doctors, got ample rest, and now he feels completely fine. To him this whole process made him become more conscious about his health and now he drinks more water and is committed to eating healthier foods.
A father’s joy
“All through this process, my greatest worry was organ rejection. If the organ was rejected by my daughter’s body, that would have shattered my world. I was also worried about losing her during the process. She was also worried that I would not make it. I thank God there was no rejection and the two of us survived,” he says.
Hearing her giggle, laugh, and play with her siblings today makes him a proud dad. Before the transplant, she only had the energy to sit. Also, seeing her enjoy her normal life such as eating without limitation is another thing that makes him feel proud of his action. However, he reveals that the whole process took toll on his health and he lost about 10 kilogrammes.
According to Gioko, without his intervention to donate his kidney, his daughter could have remained on the transplant waiting list for several years until they get a living-related donor. Currently in Kenya, one can only receive a donated kidney from their relatives. Non-related donations are not allowed.
On her side, Keren says that this act has formed an unbreakable bond between her and her father. Today, she is her father’s biggest cheerleader. The reason is simple, maybe she wouldn’t be alive if it were not for him.
