Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1526409
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 SEPTEMBER 2024 NEWS The boy with one kidney Names have been changed to pro- tect the privacy of the child. JOSEPH is an active four-year-old boy with a mischievous look but as he goes about his normal life he has to contend with a chronic kid- ney condition. Joseph was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease as a baby and later had one of his kidneys removed. He leads a relatively nor- mal life but one that is also fraught with risk, his mother Davinia tells me as we sit at the kitchen table. A urinary tract infection could be fatal for Joseph's only kidney and he cannot take certain antibi- otics and pain killers because they may cause a negative reaction, she tells me. "Whenever Joseph runs a fe- ver or is sick, we cannot take any chances and take him to hospital so that tests can rule out a urinary tract infection and he can receive the appropriate treatment," Dav- inia says. Since the beginning of the year, he has been hospitalised three times at Mater Dei and also visited the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, the UK for a follow up check-up. Davinia says Joseph's regular medication and any other treat- ment he requires is specially tai- lored to his body's needs. The wrong medicinal cocktail can cause negative consequences, she adds. Until recently, whenever Joseph was admitted to hospital, he was seen by a consultant who is a pae- diatric nephrologist. Specialised in renal problems that afflict chil- dren, the consultant and another specialist doctor would know how to treat Joseph for any ailments without having to understand the backstory and with full knowledge of the risks. "The doctors became familiar faces and given that they were specialised in child nephrology helped put my mind at ease," Da- vinia says. But this all changed a couple of weeks ago. Joseph had to be hos- pitalised because he was running a fever and when Davinia asked that he be seen by the paediatric neph- rologists, she was informed that the consultant had retired and the other doctor had resigned. "It came as a shock because the two familiar faces were no longer going to treat my son," Davinia tells me. "Now, there is only one trainee-doctor, who is not a con- sultant and who is trying to cope with all paediatric renal cases." The Health Ministry (see reply below) confirmed with MaltaTo- day that the consultant who led the specialised kidney service for children "took early retirement and did not wish to extend fur- ther". The ministry also confirmed that the specialist doctor resigned at the same time "for health rea- sons". Joseph was in hospital for four days and the absence of the spe- cialised doctors caused Davinia a lot of anxiety. "Everything was indicating that Joseph did not have a urinary tract infection but the urine culture test results were not yet out and the consultant (not a nephrolo- gist) who saw him was willing to discharge Joseph from hospital just the same. I refused because in every other instance the neph- rologists only discharged Joseph after these test results were out," Davinia says. She spent four days next to her son, making sure that any medi- cine and treatment he was admin- istered by the ward doctors was not detrimental to his health. "I was constantly asking what medicines and treatment he was being given but it should not be on me to make such a call… it just makes me anxious because giving my son the wrong painkiller, or the wrong antibiotic could have serious negative consequences," she says. A brush with death at Christmastime Davinia's concerns may appear exaggerated but they are not en- tirely misplaced. She almost lost her son as a two-month-old baby because doctors kept telling her nothing was wrong with him. "It was Christmastime four years' ago and the consultant nephrologist and the other spe- cialist were unavailable. Ward doctors kept telling me there was nothing wrong with my son but I could see his health dete- riorate. When the specialist doc- tor returned from abroad and visited Joseph she immediately realised the blood results were bad and rushed him into emer- gency care," Davinia says. She shudders as she recalls that harrowing experience. It brings goose pimples to her skin. "I spent days thinking that I would have to bury my own son at Christmastime until he even- tually pulled through," Davinia After Mater Dei Hospital lost two specialist renal child doctors, a mother tells Kurt Sansone she is anxious and concerned over her son's fate.