Michael | Glenfield
“Probably by trying to spend time with them, and basically trying to be there for them, and doing what I can to help them. Not (anyone) specifically, but I do help my wife every day, because she has chronic health issues, like myself, and we both can’t work. So, we help each other and look after each other.
I’ve had a liver transplant when I was five, and the thing I most feel proud about is this year it’s my 30th anniversary of my liver transplant. So it was done in 1988.
I was born with heart problems, and at about six months old I got jaundice and my mum took me to the doctors when I was a baby, and saw the GP, and they went and saw some doctors, and found out that I had liver failure, and basically, my liver was packing up.
They don’t know why, or what caused it, but we guess it’s genetic, but we’re not 100 per cent sure. We’re still trying to find that out, and because of that, I had the transplant done in Brisbane in 1988, in Brisbane, which makes me one of the longest survivors of paediatric liver transplant in New Zealand. I’ve had since, heart failure, kidney failure, and chronic pancreatitis; can be quite a struggle for my wife and I, but we get through it, and we try to make the best of it.
Hard to say, because my heart is now at 16 per cent, my kidneys are stable at this stage, and as long as they stay stable and I don’t have to go on dialysis, well then, hard to know, but with your heart at 16 per cent, you’re normally meant to be back on the transplant list, but sadly I can’t be, because it would be too risky, and too many operations, because my lungs are also at 60 per cent, and probably will worsen in time.
I think it’s important because we need to make sure that everybody knows we care, and because everybody matters and anyone could die tomorrow and so you need to make them feel special and cared about.
Yeah, so somebody who helped me out during my illness would be my doctors and my family who got me through, well so many times where I’ve been near death, and still around to tell the tale, which is great, and also to hopefully help get organ donation transplant awareness out there.”
