Kidney transplant patient Helena Dempsey has used her art to express gratitude for the PAH team, telling the story of her journey from call-up to discharge through a unique artwork which will be displayed in the Metro South Kidney and Transplant Service.
The Mt Isa local left country to spend more than six weeks in our care, leaving her little ones aged 3, 6 and 9 years-old back home while she received her second chance at life.
Making the long journey to PAH was no easy feat for Helena, with her mum receiving the call at midnight to say there was a kidney for Helena while the little ones were in the house in her care, and Helena’s phone was on silent.
The stress of this news led to an unfolding drama to locate Helena quickly with the help of the police so they could jump on a flight to Brisbane.
The saga, the process of transplant at PAH and the staff that cared for her, is represented in Helena’s artwork painted during her six-week recovery.
“The artwork shows us leaving home with the blue light – that’s the police, there’s me and these are the surgeons, the nurses and the student nurses being held by the experienced nurses,” Helena said, when explaining her artwork.
“That’s my donor that’s crossed over, and he’s turned the different way because he’s left the world. And then I got the green light that it was successful, and that’s the donor shown in the stars above.”
Helena, who had been on the transplant list for two years and dialysis for nearly five years, did get a sense that the call might be coming soon.
“My cousin was going down to Toowoomba that weekend and I was going to go down, but I had a feeling to not go, and then I got the call. I think I knew,” she said.
Metro South Kidney and Transplant Service Director Professor David Johnson said Helena was just one example of the patients the service sees that must travel long distances for their care.
“A third of our patients come from North Queensland and a significant proportion of our patients are indigenous, and it’s a long way from home, especially for these patients who don’t want to be dislocated from country,” Professor Johnson said.
“We run a successful outreach clinic, but a North Queensland unit would remove barriers to referral, access and assessment, and it would remove the difficulties with transport logistics with actually getting a transplant, as well as allowing patients to be managed closer to home in the post-transplant phase.”
With hope for a North Queensland unit on the horizon, patients like Helena can attest to how beneficial it would be, including being close to her children as she recovered.
“The little one [was] starting to get emotional when she called…but if it can change my life then I can spend the time with them,” Helena said.
DonateLife Week runs 23-30 July 2023 to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation and the impact it has on Australians.