Jaroslav from the village near Veľky Krtíš does not hide his gratitude to the donors and at the same time to the entire transplant center in Banská Bystrica. “They did a good job here, they were able to bring me back to life,” he says. Hepatitis C, which was diagnosed in 2000, led him to liver failure.
“I don’t know how I got infected. It was eating away at my liver, I struggled with it for several years. Then they told me here in Banská Bystrica that there is no other way out than transplantation in my case,” he continued. He completed the procedure in 2009, he received the organ from a deceased donor. “Probably also because it’s from a woman, I’ve been much more sensitive since then. I cry easily with any movie,” he joked. He immediately became serious. “I was extremely lucky because it happened quickly. I received a liver in three months and I was at peace for several years,” he stated. He started having kidney problems in 2011.
“I gradually got to the stage where I slowly couldn’t even drink anymore because I stopped urinating. I went to dialysis three times a week, which helps, but it’s very limiting,” he explained, adding that he had been working this way for two and a half years. “I wanted to live normally again, so I waited for a new organ. When he didn’t come, my wife offered to give him to me,” he recalls difficult times.
Filkusovci, husband and wife, transplant Spouse Jaroslav and Kamila Filkusovci.
“At first I didn’t want to agree to it, so as not to hurt her. It is not easy to approach such a thing from a close and healthy person,” he explained his concerns. “However, the head of nephrology assured me that they will take care of her and I need not worry. In the end, they convinced me and we did it,” he assessed with a smile.
He received a kidney from his beloved woman last November. He is said to be feeling well at the moment, he recovered from the operation earlier than his wife. “Nowadays she is also fit, but the first weeks were difficult for her. After all – I received a healthy organ and it was taken from her,” he noted.
They could not help their son
Kamila Filkusová made the most beautiful and humane gesture. “When we learned that it is possible to donate a kidney from a living donor, I did not hesitate for a moment. I had the tests done, which showed a match, and I didn’t worry about it anymore,” she says. She felt absolutely no fear. “You know, we suddenly lost our nineteen-year-old son in 2012. He had problems with his pancreas, the whole thing only lasted a month. The helplessness when you can’t help is unreal,” she said emotionally.
“Since I knew I could help my husband, I didn’t think at all whether I would or not. I simply went for it,” she pointed out. It is said that it strengthened their relationship even more, but she emphasized that it was already very strong before. She revealed that they will celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary in June.
“We also have a 39-year-old daughter who was also ready to donate her kidney to my father if I did not come out as suitable from the tests. But that would be an extreme decision, we didn’t want to allow it. When you lose one child, you protect the other one even more,” she added.
A team of almost a hundred people works during an organ transplant for one patient. Eva Lacková, Head of Nephrology Transplantation at Roosevelt Hospital, emphasized that Jaroslav is one of the exceptional patients, because very few people in Slovakia live with two different transplanted organs from two different donors – from both the dead and the living. At the same time, she reminded that both organs were transplanted in one center in Banská Bystrica and are functional.
Photo: Eva Štenclová, Pravda
doctors, patients, Banská Bystrica, transplantation With the team of Banská Bystrica doctors who participated in the transplants.
She explained that kidney failure occurs in more than twenty percent of patients after liver transplantation. Just such a situation occurred with Jaroslav. “We currently have almost three hundred patients on the waiting list, while last year we performed less than 160 transplants. Depending on various immunological factors, a person has to wait a very long time for a kidney. But here we see a strong story that we got from a dead liver donor to a wife,” says the primary care worker.
“Their relationship is very nice and the husband was really worried about hurting her. But the lady was determined, and after all the examinations, when we found out that she is healthy and the risk during the collection is relatively low for her, we proceeded with the procedure,” explained the primary care physician. She explained that there are still few donations, they do not sufficiently cover the requirements, but the living donor program has increased significantly. According to her, education is important and information must be spread that such a possibility exists.
They have already saved hundreds of lives
The deputy head of the Transplantation Surgery Clinic, Radoslav Kminiak, drew attention to the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation. Dozens of experts are involved, including immunologists, radiologists, internists and anesthesiologists. “Since Mr. Filkus is a kidney transplant from a woman, where the vascular structures are much finer, the surgeon performing these procedures must be very experienced,” he said.
In 2024, they transplanted 22 kidneys, of which 7 were from living donors, and 34 kidney transplants in the Banská Bystrica center. So far, they are transplanted in Slovakia only from dead donors and only in Banská Bystrica. Since the establishment of the local center (in 1991), they have transplanted a total of 1,094 kidneys and 436 livers.
“The waiting list is very dynamic, we currently have 296 people waiting for a kidney,” explained Lacková. “What is valid today may not be valid tomorrow. It varies depending on the transplant patients and, unfortunately, some don’t even make it. But we include new patients there every week,” she explained. They have to wait several days to years. For example, they recently operated on a patient who received an organ after only forty days, but some wait even four years.
Photo: Eva Štenclová, Pravda
Filkusovci, husband and wife, transplant Spouse Jaroslav and Kamila Filkusovci.
Hepatologist Svetlana Selčanová-Adamová clarified that there are currently approximately fifty people waiting for a liver. “On average, over thirty patients are transplanted here. There were years, before covid, when we had over forty, but now the curve has an upward trend again,” he says. According to her, the waiting period is approximately fifteen weeks.
“For some, it is also years, but as for the liver, it is set up a little differently than with the kidney. Patients are included in the system according to certain criteria. When they are too fragile, they become untransplantable. For example, petite women can also have a problem, for whom the organ simply does not fit,” she added.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
