2023-07-03 14:53:39
The transplant was necessary, but general anesthesia was impossible to sustain due to other pathologies concomitant to the renal insufficiency. Rejected by another Italian center, she was operated on at Sant’Orsola in Bologna for a kidney transplant from a living donor, her mother Rosaria. It is the complex story but with a happy ending of Veronica, 25 years old, the first transplant patient under loco-regional anesthesia at the Bolognese IRCCS.
“Veronica suffers from cystic fibrosis and her clinical picture is overall difficult, characterized by respiratory insufficiency that made it impossible even to hypothesize general anesthesia: the risks were too high”, explains Gaetano La Manna, director of Nephrology, dialysis and transplantation of Sant’Orsola. “We chose to offer her a transplant with loco-regional anesthesia after a long multidisciplinary discussion. We are proud to have offered her this opportunity, because despite the complexity of the operation, we have saved Veronica from continuing dialysis and numerous other complications. Being able to offer a solution therapeutic even to the most fragile people like Veronica – underlines the specialist – represents a cultural and scientific challenge for medicine, but also and above all a great gesture of human and professional sensitivity to which the scientific community must never escape”.
“Intubating Veronica was impossible, there was the risk of a tracheotomy or serious respiratory complications. In addition to the group clinical evaluation, there is one aspect that gave me the certainty that we could give her this opportunity: her motivation and strength”, highlights Antonio Siniscalchi, director of post-surgical intensive care at the polyclinic. “Managing a patient under loco-regional anaesthesia, both before and during surgery – he specifies – is complex: first you need to choose the most specific therapy with respect to the case, during it you need to support the patient also from an emotional point of view and this requires, if possible, even more attention. She was good, she collaborated and held firm also from a psychological point of view. She shed a single tear, but of joy, when her mother’s kidney came into the room and she asked us to give it to her see. We did it.”
“My journey at Sant’Orsola began thanks to the suggestion of the cystic fibrosis center of Cesena – Veronica says – after I received a refusal in another Italian center. At Sant’Orsola, right from the first interview, I felt reassured and I found hope again. I was always convinced of wanting to have a transplant, even when this solution was offered to me and the need to be operated on while I was awake. Finally, a few weeks ago I received the kidney donated by my mother. The surgery went well and today I feel reborn, I’m going back to the life I did before dialysis. I am grateful to all the doctors for having believed in me and in my belief that I want to face this difficult operation”.
“I can’t describe in words what I feel when I think I have had the opportunity to donate a kidney to my daughter – says mother Rosaria – The meaning is in the light that has returned to her eyes. Veronica has a genetic disease since birth and had already faced a liver transplant. She was able to have a normal life: to work, to have fun. Then came kidney disease and dialysis, first two and then three times a week. When St. Ursula gave us availability to carry out the transplant, I proposed myself as a donor. We were operated on the same morning, we said goodbye with a hug and an ‘I love you’. I was sure that everything would go well because the whole team of doctors, in addition to the professionalism shown , has always put us at ease and has approached our story with the heart”.
“When you are faced with such complex cases, it is teamwork that makes the difference. Furthermore, when it comes to transplants, we also have our own experience and research which in this area has allowed us to become an Irccs “, says Chiara Gibertoni, general manager of Sant’Orsola. “An extraordinary story in which the expertise of our professionals, the determination of a courageous girl and the love of a mother intertwine, who with the gift of her kidney has allowed her daughter to recover a quality of life that was previously impossible – he comments Raffaele Donini, Councilor for Health Policies of the Emilia Romagna Region – A new confirmation of the results that public and universal health care achieves every day thanks to our professionals, of whom we are very proud. To Veronica and her mother Rosaria, the embrace of our community “.
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