One of the most important characteristics of a human being is to forget or being able to forget. But as we hang onto life in a way, we are mistaken at the same time by forgetting to some extent. The rush of daily routine becomes our life, then we want to think about tomorrow cause. Today is already difficult enough.
A healthy and strong person believes that he/she will be the same the next day as well. The real issue is to ward off daily problems. Of course, we can not say that it is hundred percent wrong. One can not live worrying each day about getting sick. Therefore, forgetting helps us to hang onto life. We can take the pressure enthusiastically when we forget how vulnerable we are by nature. But some day when we face health related problems, it feels as if time suddenly stopped, and then we look ourselves in the mirror and start asking where we are.
One day you may find out that your kidneys have failed, and your life will never be the same. You have become one of the characters with kidney failure that you saw on TV. People talk about dialysis treatment. Getting regularly hooked up to a dialysis machine, not being allowed to drink as much water as you would like or eat whatever you like, become part of your daily life. It is hard to accept the fact that you are, now, a patient with chronic kidney failure.
Are the three days of the week that you spend on haemodialysis treatment three lost days or four days gained if there were no haemodialysis treatment available? At present, there are 60.000 haemodialysis patients in Turkey. We perform a little over 2.000 kidney transplantations per year. To be fair currently the main treatment method for chronic kidney failure is still the hemodialysis treatment. The manpower spent by haemodialysis personnel helps a very large group of patients to hold onto their lives. As an organ transplantation surgeon, at this point, I feel obliged to thank all the haemodialysis personnel.
On the other hand, the human effort that never calls a halt to development and progress made the kidney transplantation the golden standard treatment method for chronic kidney failure during the last two decades. In order to help our patients to return to their work, give our pediatric patients the possibility to continue to their education, and offer a more independent and comfortable life, each suitable person should undergo kidney transplantation. But it should be kept in mind that chronic kidney failure is a dynamic process, where various treatment methods complete each other. The key to achieve accurate results will be a thorough evaluation of the right treatment for the right patient, by keeping in mind the fact that there is no disease, but there is a patient.
At present, we have responsibility of making treatment plans and performing these plans for those patients, who irreversibly lost their kidney functions and need haemodialysis or kidney transplantation. There is apparently a necessity to raise social consciousness in terms of being aware of the fact that organ sources are limited and they refrain us from sparing the lives of people, and they die as a result of ignorance although they could be saved. Increasing organ donations is one of the most important parameters in actualisation of kidney transplantations. We need to remember our own vulnerability. Health problems are not only patient problems, but they are also our problems. In case we become aware of this fact, we will give an end to isolation of patients and their relatives. It is that isolation feeling sometimes that makes the patient and his/her relatives burn themselves out more than the disease itself.
We, as the Florence Nightingale Organ Transplantation Center's personnel, are pleased to be the source of hope for our patients. We are happy to offer organ transplantation within the SGK coverage with the experience of our center that represents the highest health standards in our country since the first day of its operation.
Considering the status of kidney failure in our country, there is still a very long way to be gone. A large portion of this distance is composed of factors such as social solidarity, an increased level of consciousness on organ donation and alike. The social consciousness and solidarity that will be added to worldwide success of our surgeons in organ transplantation surgery will create hope for our people that face the disease, and also will help them to return to their loved ones, to their work, education, better to say, to life, which is a present for each one of us.
The real heroes that help us to return the chronic kidney failure patients to life are, in fact, organ donors. As a doctor who witnessed the joy presented by organ donors, who are the source of light and hope in the eyes of our patients, I wish to extend my thanks to all of them.
Yours truly,
Ass.Prof. Gürkan Tellioglu
Florence Nightingale Hospital
Head of Kidney Transplantation Center
Kidney Transplantation
