An incredible series of events that her family believe were nothing short of miraculous helped Maria Wyer to successfully undergo a kidney transplant last month.
The 39-year-old credits her Catholic faith and a positive outlook on life as helping her get through an 18-month ordeal that included losing her previous transplanted kidney, returning to dialysis, finding a matched donor, and undergoing the transplant.
“It’s going incredibly well,” she told The Record three weeks after the operation.
“They’ve given me no indication of how long it’s going to last for… but I’m hoping this is going to last forever, because I can’t imagine going through it again, but I just have to have faith that I’ll be looked after.”
At just nine months old, Maria was diagnosed with haemolytic uraemic syndrome – a rare form of kidney failure.
Her first operation as an infant left Maria with only 25 per cent of one kidney functioning, which kept her regularly in hospital until the age of five.
“When I was five I was very sick, and against all the doctors’ advice mum took me to Lourdes,” Maria recalled.
“I went down into the holy water baths, and I came out dry and started getting better after that.”
Maria was “relatively well” during her childhood and adolescence, until her partial kidney ceased working when she was 18, and soon after she had to begin haemodialysis.
A long, six-year wait for a kidney transplant followed, before her mum came to the rescue in 1999, donating one of her kidneys to Maria.
Over the next 13 years Maria got married, travelled around Australia twice, and visited some of her dream overseas destinations.
But in 2012, after contracting a mystery bug, Maria’s kidney stopped functioning, eventually forcing its removal in December.
She then returned to the unhappy memories of dialysis treatments several times a day for hours at a time.
“I was so scared that I would have to wait for as long as I did for the first one,” she said.
“I knew what it was like being on dialysis and I desperately wanted to avoid that.”
In an attempt to find a kidney donor as quickly as possible, Maria started a blog, where she shared her story with others.
She also joined the Paired Exchange Program, an initiative of the Organ and Tissue Authority designed to increase the options for living kidney donation.
Those in need of a kidney transplant simply need someone to donate a kidney on their behalf, which is then exchanged with another compatible kidney for the person in need.
“One of my girlfriends from high school contacted me through the blog and said ‘How do you feel if I get tested?’” Maria explained.
“I literally had not seen her in 20 years since high school and… I was in shock, because a lot of people do offer, but they’re not really serious.”
In October the Paired Exchange Program found a matching kidney for Maria, although it involved a three-way swap.
“My kidney came from Queensland, and my girlfriend’s kidney went to Victoria, so it was pretty amazing how it all worked out,” she said.
After waiting six years for her first kidney transplant, Maria said she was extremely thankful that she only waited 18 months for a kidney the second time around.
“Having faith’s definitely helped me,” she said. “I guess I just needed to trust God and needed to trust that he was going to look after me.”
Going through the whole process of losing her kidney, returning to dialysis and waiting for a suitable donor, even brought Maria closer to God.
“Even though I was brought up Catholic, I haven’t really gone to church for a really long time, but I’ve started going to church again especially in the last 12 months,” she said.
While Maria’s new kidney is functioning well at present, there’s no guarantee how long it will last for. It could be anywhere between one year and 20 years.
But with a renewed faith and trust in God, Maria says she’s just happy that everything has worked out.
“I just feel lucky that I was brought up with faith because when everything around you falls apart, it’s just something you can turn to… and I know God’s looking after me,” she said.