Dominic & Christine Muia
Christine Muia and her husband Dominic were devastated when they received the news that they had been dreading for years: after 30 years of suffering from kidney disease, Dominic was in dire need of a kidney transplant. At 54 years old, the prospect of a healthy retirement now seemed remote as Dominic considered the consequences of a complex and risky surgery, or the even more frightening possibility that he would be unable to find a suitably matched organ. “We were wracked with anxiety,” Christine recalls. “The idea that Dominic would spend hours a week hooked up to a dialysis machine and years waiting on the donor list seemed almost too much to bear.”
Fortunately, Dominic was referred to the transplant team at the MUHC, a group of specialized doctors, nurses, social workers, and other dedicated staff who set about calming the Muias’ fears, answering their questions, and most important of all, finding Dominic another a matching kidney. Much to the couple’s surprise and relief, testing revealed that Christine would be a suitable donor for her husband. “We were ecstatic. It really seemed like a miracle,” Christine says. “The prospect of my own surgery—even the news that I’d need to have my gall bladder removed first—did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm.”
It was at this point that Christine was referred to Dr. Liane Feldman, a laparoscopic surgeon who would remove Christine’s gall bladder and later her kidney. Feldman, who joined the MUHC’s renowned Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) team in 2000, assured the Muias that removing the gall bladder would be quick and low-risk and would impose little postoperative suffering. “That was when I realized how lucky it was that Dominic and I were being treated at a major university health centre like the MUHC, where the surgeons are experienced in the newest techniques,” Christine says. Unlike conventional gall bladders surgery, Christine’s procedure would be performed through a keyhole incision with the aid of a tiny camera and miniature instruments. “I walked out of the hospital after day surgery and hardly felt anything.”
Of course, the more complex procedure was still to come—the intact removal of Christine’s kidney so that it could be transplanted into Dominic. Amazingly, this procedure would also be performed laparoscopically. Through the same kind of keyhole incision used in the gall bladder surgery, Feldman and her team would carefully sever the vessels and other structures connecting Christine’s kidney and remove it from her body through a three-inch incision. Christine would be up and walking the next day, discharged two days later, and would have only a barely visible scar.
The procedures for Christine and Dominic both went off without a hitch, and two days after her surgery Christine was discharged and on her way to visit her husband. “Even those two days of being apart were difficult,” Christine recalls. “It was so good when I could finally see Dominic in person, hold his hand, and confirm that he was doing well.”
