Photo: Great response: Children resting and chatting after the 5km and 7km running events – both of which are held to raise awareness of organ donation.
KUCHING: Winnie Liao, who was just 28 years old when her kidneys failed, counted the time she was placed on an organ transplant waiting list, not in years, but in months.
She endured 225 months, or 18 years and nine months. During the period, she was on haemodialysis.
“I had my first one in Singapore on July 1987, and continued at Sesco for two months. Then I left for Kuala Lumpur for three months to learn the ‘art of inserting two large needles into my arms’,” Liao told reporters here yesterday.
Liao was speaking after participa- ting in a 7km charity run, aimed at raising awareness of organ donation. She described dialysis as the “most painful days of my life” and “self torture”.
But Liao was still much better off than others.
“In 1988, I became the first home dialysed patient in Kuching,” she said.
On May 11, 2006, Liao finally became a kidney recipient. Today, she regards her life as “pre-transplantation” and “post-transplantation”.
The gift from a donor has enabled her to “lead a normal and happy life”.
Simple things like having normal urine output, being able to sleep well at night and having “smooth skin”, mean the world to her.
Kidney failure causes a host of discomforts. Patients frequently suffer from high blood pressure, itchy and course skin, muscle cramps and in some cases, insomnia.
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{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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