2016-04-01Staff Report 2 Our Star of the Week is Dr Tshali Iithete the Managing Director of Ongwediva Medipark, whose medical team from the privately-owned Ongwediva Medipark, together with the help of medical specialists from South Africa, on Tuesday successfully performed the first ever kidney transplant in Namibia. Tuesday’s Namibian medical first occurred at 10h00 and lasted for about six hours. Iithete said his medical team had been planning for this type of operation for 15 months. “We have been going to South Africa to get the necessary help for this type of transplant and to establish it,” Iithete told New Era. Iithete noted that the 59-year-old patient who received the new kidney had a chronic kidney problem and had been on a dialysis machine that replicates the functions of a kidney. The patient received the donated kidney from his 20-year-old son and both the donor and the recipient are recovering well. Iithete said if the patient was not operated on, he would have relied on a dialysis machine for the rest of his life, or he would have been sent to South Africa, where patients with a similar condition are operated on at great cost. 2016-04-01Staff Report 2
