KEY POINTS:
Peter Robertson now has an extra-special connection to two of his siblings - both have given him a kidney.
The 43-year-old Gore man, who has had three transplants, recently farewelled his sister Suzette who returned to her home in Australia minus a kidney after a pre-Christmas transplant.
Her sacrifice of an organ she had "looked after really well" has given the father of two a new lease of life.
About a month after the transplant, he is contemplating life without being tied to dialysis four times a day and the fatigue that dogs people whose kidney function is failing.
"It's great. Basically life-changing. There is a blank canvas in front of us."
Curiously, the transplant has also left Mr Robertson with five kidneys, although only one of them works.
"They - the old kidneys - don't give you any trouble as they've all shrivelled away to nothing."
Mr Robertson's problems began in his teens but went all but unnoticed until he started drinking.
"I was always so crook and I didn't drink that much."
He was 19 when it was discovered he suffered from a kidney reflux problem and went on dialysis. His brother Aaron donated a kidney to help then, but it worked for only a short time, he said.
Mr Robertson then went on hemodialysis, tied to a machine for nearly two years before he was lucky enough to receive a dead person's kidney.
It allowed him to return to "real life" which over the past 20 years meant working at freezing works, shearing and on dairy farms, as well as raising two daughters, Laurie, 11, and Christina, 13, with his wife Paula.
That kidney lasted him until about two years ago when its function declined and he had to go back on dialysis.
"The lack of energy is quite outstanding. You are always fighting fatigue and your fluid is restricted - it's pretty hard on your body.
"It's a real tie on the family and emotionally draining. It's taken a bit for the girls to come to terms with, as they hadn't seen me sick before."
He faced a wait of about three years for a dead person's kidney, but his family "stepped up".
"Two sisters and my wife were compatible but it turned out Suzette was the best match so we went for that one."
The operation at Christchurch Hospital's renal unit went to plan. Mr Robertson suffered complications but "I'm over that now".
Mr Robertson, who comes from a family of seven, had nothing but praise for his donor sister Suzette Robertson, 45, a nurse and mother of two teenage boys.
Ms Robertson said from Brisbane: "I wanted to help. I could, so there was no reason not to."
She came through the operation well, spending four days in hospital before recuperating with family. She was back at work and expected to be in the gym next week.
Seeing her brother recover had been great. "I gave him a good kidney that I'd looked after really well."
The brother-sister relationship had not changed, Ms Robertson said. "He still gives me heaps. Having a little bit of me in him won't harm him."
Mr Robertson said having two siblings donate kidneys to him was humbling. "I've been blessed with a big family, with big hearts. It was a really good Christmas present, I couldn't have asked for anything better."
Kidney Transplants
* Almost 25 per cent of all kidney transplants in New Zealand are performed with living donors.
* Success rates for transplantation for kidneys are 94 per cent at one year and 78 per cent at five years from dead donors.
* Kidney transplants began in New Zealand in 1965.
Source: New Zealand Kidney Foundation and Organ Donation New Zealand websites.
- OTAGO DAILY TIMES
