‘In sickness and kidney sharing’

By STANSLOUS NGOSA –
“ON this day, I give you my heart, my promise, that I will walk with you, hand-in-hand wherever our journey leads us, living, learning, loving, together, forever.”
This is a typical vow exchanged on a wedding day when a couple gets married.
Some couples have lived up to such vows while others have not.
For Elalious Chileshe and his wife Irene, their vows exchanged many years ago are still fresh as demonstrated recently when he donated one of his kidneys to his wife.
Finding a kidney donor was difficult for Ms Chileshe 43, who suffered from kidney disease in 2003 because relatives including her blood sister allegedly refused to help.
Before being diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease, Ms Chileshe, started feeling like she had malaria.
“I slept a lot and vomited too much. I did not know I was five months pregnant until the tests were done at Nchanga South Hospital,” Ms Chileshe narrated.

• HAPPY COUPLE: Mr and Mrs Chileshe.

Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) Nephrologist James Chabu examined her and revealed that she had kidney disease and was prescribed for treatment but to no avail.
This was when Dr Chabu finally recommended Ms Chileshe for a kidney transplant and that the surgical procedure could only be done in India.
The question that haunted Ms Chileshe was where to find the organ.
She then discussed the problem with her husband, who fter being briefed on the spouse’s plight, said “I am ready to give you my kidney because we are one.”
But Mr Chileshe’s decision to donate a kidney did not go well with his parents who were totally against it thinking their son would die as he could not survive on one organ.
“I knew that if I did not donate the kidney she would eventually die and I would remain alone and quilt for rest of my life. I could not think of what I could have told our children if my wife died because I refused to donate a kidney,” Mr Chileshe recalls.
Mr Chileshe, 50 was also compelled to donate the kidney based on Biblical teaching that when two are married they become one flesh.
After the couple finally agreed on the donation, they consulted Dr Chabu on the pros and cons of donating a kidney and received positive advice, much to their satisfaction.
Preliminary tests were done to ascertain compatibility of the two and it was discovered that they shared the same blood group-‘O’.
This discovery excited the couple because if they had been in different blood groups, the story could have been something else.
The transplant, facilitated by KCM, was done in August last year in India and Ms Chileshe successfully delivered a baby a girl.
The incidence of kidney transplants in developing countries like Zambia seem almost insurmountable to the average citizen.
This is because they entail access to foreign medical expertise for treatment which inevitably means colossal cost in form of medical bills.
It is thus incumbent on various governments to increase the chances of curing their nationals by developing their medical infrastructure in form of well equipped clinics and hospitals.
However, the couple thanked KCM and its medical team who they described as ‘Children of God’ for the gesture of ensuring a successful operation.
They appealed to the mining giant to increase their aid to the afflicted underprivileged patients in the country.
This can be done by helping to equip the available hospitals with modern medical facilities that would make organ transplants to be done locally.
Mr Chileshe said recent investment made by KCM in the expansion of mining activities means that the mining company was here to stay and inspires confidence in its workers and community the mine is operating from.
In this context, the government is in the process of taking up the challenge to overcome obstacles faced by would-be organ transplant patients.
“I never dreamt I would fly abroad but because of the copper mine and God, everything was made possible,” Mr Chileshe said.
Mr Chileshe has worked for the mining company for 28 years as a mechanical fitter.
The gesture evidently shows goodwill extended to the employee when the odds were heavily staked against him.
The couple appealed to the mining firm to facilitate travel to go for review in August this year.
Further to this humanitarian act, KCM has demonstrated the importance of investing in human resource contentment and fulfilment.
One would hope that the bailing out of their worker should not only end with KCM but should cross parameters in the public and private sectors.
The couple now feel they were enjoying life because they were healthy after Ms Chileshe’s kidney transplant operation in India.
The solemn promise made when the couple wedded several years ago has evidently lived the test of time and would go in the annals of medical history as a milestone worth emulating.
The whole episode narrated in the medical miracle that saved a life apparently is in keeping with a particular wedding vow that one may make on their wedding day such as ‘till death do us part’.