NHS boss hails ‘gift’ of donated kidney after less than a year on transplant list

Health reporter(wp/es):

A hospital boss who underwent a kidney transplant after less than a year on the waiting list spoke today of the “amazing gift”.

Matthew Hopkins, 50, chief executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS trust, was selected for a “pre-emptive” operation months before he faced being placed on daily dialysis. A friend had volunteered to donate a kidney but another kidney, for which Mr Hopkins was a good match, became available after the death of a donor.

He had the procedure at St George’s hospital in Tooting this month, hours after receiving an early-morning phone call telling him an organ was available. 

Kidney patients normally wait two and a half years for a transplant due to the shortage of donors. Last year 256 NHS patients died waiting for a kidney. Mr Hopkins said: “It’s an amazing gift. I just feel very, very lucky — and lucky from the point that it came so quickly. The normal waiting time is a minimum of two years. 

“In other communities, such as the black community, where kidney disease is more prevalent, or for South-East Asians, there is an even longer waiting time. I’m going to be very sensible in making sure I look after this kidney.”

Under transplant rules, Mr Hopkins knows nothing of the donor and the donor’s family are not told which patient receives the organ.

He inherited polycystic kidney disease and was facing the prospect of daily peritoneal dialysis, in which fluids are drained from the abdomen. Mr Hopkins said: “I have known I have this since 1993. The team at St George’s have kept a close eye on me. Because I’m fit and healthy, they were keen to do a pre-emptive transplant before I became dependent on dialysis.”

He praised the “excellent” treatment he received and was discharged four days after the hour-long operation. He expects to be off work for eight weeks. 

St George’s performs 130 kidney transplants a year. The process involves “re-plumbing” the third kidney into his body rather than removing one of his own kidneys. Sally Johnson, director of organ donation and transplantation for NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “Organ donation saves lives and we urge people to join the NHS Organ Donor Register.”