A CRUSHEEN resident is playing a difficult waiting game for a new kidney after starting hospital dialysis in Limerick at the beginning of the year.

Barbara Muldoon-Ting has a few more health checks to complete before she is added to the kidney transplant list and could face a wait of up to two years or more on haemodialysis.
Having moved to a housing estate near the church in Crusheen in December 2007 with her husband Simon Ting, who is from Hong Kong, Barbara started haemodialysis in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick on January 4 last and moved over to the Fresenius dialysis unit on the Dock Road in Limerick on January 18.
A native of Longford, she has to get dialysis three times a week for four hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7am to 11am, which can be tiring, as her blood count is low at the moment. Problems with her kidneys started in 1987. She had a renal operation and thought she was finished with treatment.
However, in July 2001, while she was in hospital for treatment, doctors discovered her potassium levels had gone through the roof and she was immediately rushed to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, where it was discovered she had experienced an acute chronic attack on her kidneys.
Barbara understand that while everyone is born with a reflux in their kidneys, most people grow out of it but in her case, it went on to cause her a lot of problems. Doctors treated this successfully during her three-week stay and she had to have three-month regular check-ups. Kidney failure was identified at this stage and her kidney function deteriorated over the years from 33% to less than 10% in both kidneys, which prompted the need for dialysis earlier this year.
Initially, she found dialysis was a somewhat frightening experience as she was entering the unknown.
“After settling in with dialysis, it is now working out well and is not painful. It is good to have a day off after each session to recover and the weekends off because you can feel quite tired when you are on dialysis. I have to watch the potassium and phosphate levels in my diet.
“Getting a new kidney would change my life completely. Because dialysis is a relatively new experience, the impact hasn’t fully sunk in yet. It does restrict what you can do and where you can go in terms of things like holidays.
“It would give me a new life, provide me with a lot more independence. I would urge everyone to carry an organ donor card to make any of their organs available and inform their family members or next-of-kin of their wishes, to avoid any confusion that may arise,” she said.
She said that a lot of people tended to put having a donor card on the long finger and given their availability in pharmacies and doctor surgeries, she urged people to stop and think about the benefits of having a donor card during Organ Donor Awareness Week, which runs from Saturday to April 3.

Public urged to get a donor card

Clare people are three times more likely to need an organ transplant than they are to become a donor.
That’s the startling statistic provided by the treasurer of the Clare branch of the Irish Kidney Association, Peggy Eustace, who has urged everyone to get an organ donor card during Organ Donor Awareness Week, which runs from Saturday to April 3.
In total, 76 patients attend the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick for dialysis of which 19 are from Clare. Another 45 patients attend the Fresenius dialysis unit on the Dock Road in Limerick, of which 12 are from Clare. Two Clare patients attend the Merlin Park dialysis unit in Galway.
There are 18 patients on home dialysis attending the peritoneal dialysis clinic in Limerick, seven of whom are from Clare and 18 pre-dialysis patients are attending the out-patients clinics in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick.
There are at least 40 kidney transplant recipients in Clare and many recipients of heart, lungs and liver transplanted organs.
Ms Eustace has seen a large increase in the number of patients with chronic kidney disease in Clare over the last 20 years.
“Back then, you could count on one hand the numbers of patients who were receiving their haemo-dialysis treatment. PD dialysis was not available to patients in those days.
“We were glad to see the expansion of the dialysis facility for our patients with the opening of the new Fresenius unit on the Dock Road in Limerick.
“Dialysis is a life-saving treatment, a person in renal failure would not survive without it. They need to attend the units three days a week for four-hourly sessions of dialysis,” she said.
Throughout Organ Donor Week, Irish Kidney Association volunteers will be out on the streets and in shopping centres throughout Clare selling ‘forget me not flower’ emblems brooches, magnetic car ribbons, organ donor keyrings and newly introduced packs of forget-me-not flower seeds.
Proceeds will go to the Irish Kidney Association’s support programme for patients on dialysis and those patients who have had a kidney transplant.
The support programme includes the running of a renal support centre in Beaumont Hospital and holiday centres in Kerry and Tramore, as well as patient aid and counselling services, patient training and rehabilitative work placement, health promotion and the provision of kidney patient information and education.