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Singapore’s first paired kidney exchange transplant done at NUH

SINGAPORE — Since she was 15, Ms Siti Rasyidah Lokman Hadan has been on dialysis while waiting for a transplant because her kidneys had failed from an autoimmune disease.

Siti Rasyidah binte Lokman Hadan is the successful recipient of Singapore's first living paired kidney exchange transplant. She is with her mother, Mdm Noor Rafidah, in this photo. Photo: Koh Mui Fong

Siti Rasyidah binte Lokman Hadan is the successful recipient of Singapore's first living paired kidney exchange transplant. She is with her mother, Mdm Noor Rafidah, in this photo. Photo: Koh Mui Fong

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SINGAPORE — Since she was 15, Ms Siti Rasyidah Lokman Hadan has been on dialysis while waiting for a transplant because her kidneys had failed from an autoimmune disease.

Her eight-year wait ended in April last year when she became part of Singapore’s first living paired kidney exchange transplant, performed at the National University Hospital.

Ms Siti, now 23, would have had to wait longer if she and her mother, Madam Noor Rafidah, 47, had not signed on for paired kidney exchange transplants eight months earlier. This involves a patient getting priority in receiving an organ in exchange for his/her kin donating to a patient.

Such exchanges were introduced in 2009 to increase the pool of potential donors, although back then, a recipient-donor pair had to be compatible with another, making matches tougher. Since 2014, the arrangement has been tweaked to allow recipient-donor pairs to get and donate to different families.

Patients on the paired exchange registry get priority for transplants compared to those under the normal registry.

“Under normal circumstances, when a (donor) only donates to the pool, only one transplant takes place. On the other hand, if the (donor) donates to the paired exchange registry, two transplants can take place.

By matching two or more donor-recipient pairs to create matches that otherwise would not have occurred, more patients can receive organs,” said Professor A Vathsala, co-director of NUH’s National University Centre for Organ Transplantation.

Commenting on why there had been no living paired kidney exchanges so far, Prof Vathsala said: “Many patients didn’t want to (be the first to) list themselves on the paired exchange registry. They weren’t sure if they’d be getting a fair deal when getting a kidney from someone else donating to them.”

For Ms Siti, the kidney transplant meant regaining her independence. She had been wheelchair-bound for four years prior to the surgery, due to health complications that included rhythm abnormalities of her heart and a disease that resulted in weak bones and repeated fractures.

“When I regained my mobility after the transplant, when the pain was almost not there, realising that I could actually walk again, it made me feel very grateful. Walking is something that I am very grateful for,” she said. 

“I am looking to going back to school so that I can fulfil my dream of becoming a teacher.”

Her mother Mdm Noor said: “I feel happy that I can save two lives — my daughter’s, but also another kidney patient’s. I just feel happy that I (can help out). It’s life-changing not just for one patient, but for two patients.”

Correction: An earlier version of this report misspelt the name of Madam Noor Rafidah. We apologise for the error.

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