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53-year-old from Lower Saxony becomes a lifesaverSteffi donates a kidney to her mother-in-law (71) in Mexico
Steffi Leigers (right) becomes a lifesaver for her mother-in-law Lupita.
private/Leigers
Lupita is “a stone in my life”!
Steffi Leigner's (53) mother-in-law has been suffering from kidney failure for years. When it became clear that the 71-year-old could only continue to live with regular dialysis, Steffi made a decision. The Emsland woman wants to donate a kidney to her mother-in-law – and is flying to Mexico for the procedure.
Close relationship despite great distance
The transplant will take place at the Christus Muguerza Hospital in the city of León. Steffi Leigers lived in Mexico with her family for many years and speaks fluent Spanish, as she explained when asked by RTL. The mother of two has now moved back to her hometown in Emsland. But the relationship with her mother-in-law was always intense.
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Lupita is “a stone” in the 53-year-old’s life. That's exactly why she decided so decisively to donate her kidney to the 71-year-old. “I definitely didn’t want her to become a dialysis patient with her kidney disease,” explains Leigers.
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Relatives worried about transplant
Not everyone around her understood her decision, explains Steffi Leigers. Both in Germany and Mexico, family and friends had concerns about the procedure: What if the women suffered secondary damage? What would happen if Steffi's children needed a kidney?
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Despite the concerns of her loved ones, the mother of two knows that they will solve these problems in the family if it comes to that. As Leiger's RTL explains, she didn't travel to Mexico completely without worries. “I was afraid that the kidney in my mother-in-law's body wouldn't work. I was very afraid of the anesthesia and even more afraid of the pain, but almost all of that was unjustified and now irrelevant.”
At the clinic, the doctors check whether Steffi is a suitable donor for Lupita.
private/Leigers
“Donating a kidney is easier than a cesarean section”
Before a transplant even takes place in Mexico, her team of doctors conducted a number of tests to determine whether Steffi was even a candidate as a donor for Lupita. The 71-year-old's three sons would probably also be a match, says Leigers. But health or family reasons would have spoken against a donation.
Steffi will stay on site for a total of three weeks for the procedure. Fortunately, the transplant went completely smoothly. “We're doing fantastically. I'm completely recovered and so is Lupita's kidneys,” says the 53-year-old. Your mother-in-law I had kidney performance of 70 percent just three days after the transplant.
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“Donating a kidney is easier than a cesarean section,” says Steffi Leigers. With her story, she now wants to draw attention to how important organ donation is: “Living donation is an act of generosity and love,” she believes, “and if you say: I’ll do anything for my family, then you don’t have to be afraid of this act.”
Sources used: Em's axisown RTL research
