Congratulations to Temple Street Hospital

Temple Street Children's Hospital is marking 10 years of performing kidney transplants, and said that last year was the busiest year ever for transplants.

A special celebration took place at Croke Park on Saturday, 29th June attended by 250 childlren and their families to mark 10 years of kidney transplantation at the Hospital.

Speaking about developments at the National Paediatric Renal Transplant and Haemodialysis Unit at Temple Street, Dr Atif Awan, Consultant Nephrologist said:

Our strong multi-disciplinary team continues to work to get as many children whose kidneys have failed, or who were born without normal kidney function, off dialysis as quickly as possible. We currently have 20 children waiting for a new kidney. We work in close partnership with the National Renal Transplant Team based in Beaumont and are very grateful for all their efforts on our behalf.

Since their service started in 2003, the hospital has seen a 35 per cent increase in the number of live related donors.

Awan said that by increasing rates of live related donation they can reduce the amount of time children are on dialysis. They can also schedule their surgery to ensure they are in optimum condition for their transplant operation, as well as avoiding a potential wait for a suitable deceased donor kidney to become available.

“Kidney transplantation is a much more cost effective solution for the State. Five years of dialysis can cost up to €400,000 per child – a kidney transplant has a once off cost of €30,000 for the 1st year and about 10,000 per year thereafter,” continued Dr Awan.

Sheila Boyle, Senior Nephrology Nurse at Temple Street said that 2012 saw them conduct 16 transplants, which made it their busiest year ever.

This number is increasing because of more live donor transplants and more people carrying donor cards.

There are currently 20 children on the waiting list for a new kidney, so Temple Street and the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) are renewing their appeal for people to carry a donor card.

Read the story of a very special and courageous young boy, Rory Barrett in a blog written by his mother, Ann.

http://newkidney.blogspot.ie/