Brazil has world’s largest public organ transplant system
Eleven years ago, Renata Vilela, 34, was born again. Her second birth was possible after her godmother Andrea Reusing donated a kidney for the transplant. The procedure was carried out free of cost at the Kidney and Hypertension Hospital, a public hospital in São Paulo.
According to the Brazilian Organ Transplant Association, the country ranks second in the absolute number of transplant. It is also the globe’s biggest transplant system, as per data from the Health Ministry. Today, approximately 95 percent of procedures held countrywide are financed by Brazil’s public health care system, the SUS.
“Even though it’s called ‘survival,’ I don’t feel like I’m merely surviving. I feel like I have full, satisfactory life. I can work, I can study, I can have a relationship, I can be productive, I can dream—which is quite different from when you’re undergoing dialysis, which prevents you from traveling. My mom gave birth to me for the first time; she gave birth to me for the second time,” Vilela told Agência Brasil.
Fulfilling life
“I’m 34 years old, and thanks to a 65-year-old kidney I can live a fulfilling life and be happy. My godmother restored not only my ability to dream, but to make my dreams come true. Today, I work with something I love, I live in a city I love, I have the opportunity to study, meet people, make friends, and work for what I believe in—and I owe it all to the second life my godmother gave me,” the young women said.
Renata was 19 when she found out she had kidney disease after showing symptoms of severe anemia. She underwent dialysis for three years and had her diet considerably limited. She went as far as not being able to eat anything but carbohydrates for a whole month. This is when she gave in to the urge to eat a tangerine—the misstep resulted in a serious complication which nearly claimed her life.
During her treatment, family members were screened for the possibility of donation. “I have no siblings, and my dad is also an only child. My mom couldn’t donate because she had already donated a kidney to my dad. In my mother’s family, no could donate because of health issues. And my cousins were all of a different blood type. Time went by, and I found no one within my family,” she said.
As she found no prospective donors among her relatives, Vilela joined the national transport queue. Last year, this line was made up of close to 40 thousand people, 12,460 of them waiting for a kidney. “For three years and a half I waited in line for a donor. And this is a single line, well administered by SUS,” she said.
“My situation, however, was deteriorating. Dialysis was no longer working so well. This is when my godmother, who was a childhood friend of my mother’s, asked my mom: Why can’t I donate to Renata?”
Screening result come out positive and Vilela’s godmother could donate her her kidney. Since 2008, when the surgery was performed, she has led a health life. “The transplant is no cure, but rather a constitutive renal therapy, a treatment, just like dialysis. Nonetheless, it’s a treatment that ensures a much better quality of life, with much greater autonomy. I can eat virtually anything, except star fruit. I can travel. I do tests and medical consultations every two months, and I need SUS-provided medicines on a daily basis. It’s a normal life,” she said.
A life-changing gesture
Today, Renata Vilela notes the importance of organ donation. “I wish people who can donate the organs of family members [after brain death] really consider doing it as a way to extend the lives of beloved ones. For those thinking of donating organs—like a kidney, or a part of their liver, meadow, or blood—before death, please bear in mind that this can change someone’s life,” she argued. “It’s a gesture that transforms the life of whoever is receiving it, as well as that of the donor,” she added.
She made a point of saying the whole process was conducted through SUS, during which she felt respected and in the hands of qualified professionals. “SUS keeps me alive to this day, by providing expensive medication totally free of cost.”
