At the Royal Derby Hospital in the United Kingdom, Amy Caulton received a life-saving kidney transplant when she was nine-years-old. She shared more about the experience with the Daily Mail.
She said, “My blood group is quite rare and that made it hard to find me a kidney. When I was little, I knew kids who were having their transplants just a few weeks after dialysis. For me, the wait was much, much longer. I don’t think I was bothered at the time because I was young and obviously I didn’t know the importance of the transplant.”
Caulton received her donated kidney from a young boy, who lost his life after being involved in an accident and many of his organs, including his other kidney, lungs and liver, were donated to others. She said, “He saved the lives of so many people, including mine. I will always feel indebted to the boy. He saved my life.”
Now Caulton is 30-years-old and has celebrated giving birth to a child she never thought she could have. Even though Caulton’s kidney transplant was successful, when she got older she worried that it would prevent her from having children.
She said, “When I talked to my consultant at Derby about wanting a baby, he was very supportive. He said he would have to change some of the drugs I took and that I would have to wait three months for the other medication to leave my system before I could try and get pregnant.”
Remarkably, Caulton and her husband, Anthony, did get pregnant right away.
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Caulton said, “Anthony and I had talked about just how long it might take me to get pregnant and I’d told him it could be a while. Obviously, because of my kidney transplant and all the medication I took, I thought it could take us at least a year. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. I got pregnant straight away and I was so thrilled. It was everything we wanted.”
Immediately after the hospital confirmed Caulton’s pregnancy, the renal team checked out her kidney function and doctors were pleased with the results.
She said, “I was looked after so very well. It was wonderful to have so many scans and to see the baby growing normally. At the 20-week scan, special attention was paid to my child’s kidneys. I guess everyone wanted to be sure that he was alright.”
Her son, Seth, was born six weeks early at the same hospital where Caulton received her transplant. Caulton said, “I think Seth is our little miracle. He’s everything we wanted and more. Now I’m a mum, I can’t imagine how my own mum felt about it. She must have been so worried.”
She concluded, “Having a kidney transplant could have stopped me from enjoying life but that has not been the case. I’ve done some wonderful things and my health issues have never got in the way. When I wanted Seth, the team at Derby were only too happy to support and help me. I don’t know what the future holds, no-one does, but I’m so proud of what I have achieved and my son will know all about what I’ve been through when he’s older.”
