By: Aneeqa du Plessis
The excitement was palpable at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) Monday morning where Chervon Meyer, 35, has now been afforded the opportunity to live a ‘normal life’ after a decade of being a dialysis patient due to kidney failure.
This comes after a ground-breaking invention, Glycosorb, was used to aid her kidney transplant. Glycosorb is a medical device that enables organ transplants across the blood group barrier. The product was developed in Sweden. It is the first time that Glycosorb has been used on the African continent.
According to Nephrologist at GSH Dr Zunaid Barday, the transplant team are excited to bring this novel technology to their patients.
“This will allow more patients access to transplantation and will aid in our proud legacy of innovation in transplantation. With this filter, we can now safely transplant many patients across incompatible blood groups which was a complete barrier previously,” explained Dr Barday.
He further stated that living kidney donors who were previously turned away for not being the correct blood match should come forward and get retested. This will result in more patients who have been on the transplant waiting list for years, to get a successful kidney transplant.
Meyer described her jubilation in being able to support her children after a ten-long-years. “The only thing that kept me going was my children. I can’t describe how difficult it was to juggle raising my children and managing my health for all these years. I am so grateful to God for allowing me the opportunity to live a normal life where I can provide for my children without begging and also I will forever be indebted to my brother for giving me apart of his body so that I can stand before you today,” said an emotional Meyer.
Meyer encouraged people living with a chronic illness to keep strong.
“Just keep fighting, keep praying and keep the faith,” added Meyer.
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