IT was a 100-year celebration for Longford’s Neil Tubb on April 8, even though nearly 50 guests at the Longford RSL Club knew full well he had only just turned 75. Mr Tubb was adding on the 25th anniversary of his kidney transplant, which he received when he was 50.
“I basically consider myself as having a normal life for 40 years until my kidney disease diagnosis, and a new life since receiving the donor kidney,” he said.
As an athletic young man involved in several sports, it was a late night after a game of badminton when Mr Tubb noticed blood in his urine. He took a sample to the doctor who was quick to diagnose polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary condition that results in cysts starting to grow on the kidneys from birth.
However as a foster child, later adopted, Mr Tubb was not aware of the risk. With his health deteriorating and dialysis imminent, Mr Tubb took himself to Melbourne renal specialist, Professor Napier Thomson OA. He organised for Mr Tubb to use a self-blood purifying technique called peritoneal dialysis, where he had to run a saline solution from a bag into his bloodstream and then drain it out four times a day. While tedious, the method allowed Mr Tubb to continue to work and play sport and saved him hours of being hooked up to a machine.
“When I travelled there were boxes of saline that had to go with me and more boxes delivered to my accommodation ahead of my arrival,” Mr Tubb recalled.
It was more than seven years later when Mr Tubb received a call out of the blue saying a donor kidney was available and he had only a few hours to get to a Melbourne hospital for life-saving surgery. Luckily he was already in Melbourne visiting his family at the time. When Mr Tubb was diagnosed the life expectancy of kidney transplant recipients was approximately eight years, however the successful transplant (only one kidney is required to live), even though it wasn’t a perfect match from a family member, followed by a stringent regimen of care, has meant Mr Tubb has amazed health professionals with his longevity. He puts a lot of that down to the level of care from Prof. Thomson.
“He’s looked after me right up until he retired last year,” Mr Tubb said. “He’s the former head of the School of Medicine at the Monash University Central Clinical School, a real humanitarian, a fantastic person, and I acknowledged him with a toast at the party.”
While Mr Tubb doesn’t know where his donor organ came from, he is eternally grateful to the person, most likely killed in an accident, who registered as an organ donor.
“My organs won’t be suitable to donate but I’ve already organised to donate my body to science, so that they can study it and hopefully help with research and the training of future specialists in medicine,” he said.
In Tasmania last year the lives of 57 people like Mr Tubb were saved when they received a transplant, thanks to the incredible generosity of 18 Tasmanian organ donors, and their families who said yes to donation. According to DonateLife Tasmania, Tasmania achieved the highest rate of donors per million population in 2021 at 31.5 DPMP, compared to the national average of 17.5 DPMP.
Joining the Australian Organ Donor Register takes less than a minute at donatelife.gov.au or just three clicks on the Medicare Express Plus app. Everyone 16 and over can register as an organ and tissue donor regardless of their medical history, their lifestyle or even if they’ve had COVID-19 and it’s important to tell family members of your intention.
At the end of 2022, 48 per cent of Tasmanians aged 16 and over were registered as organ and tissue donors, the second highest state registration rate nationally, however this is halved when they are uncertain about whether their family member wanted to be a donor (only four in 10 families say yes).