Life is a Struggle, we are Running a Marathon that we Have to Win

I am a mother of two sons, Đorđe and Dragiša.
I donated a kidney to Dragiša.

My husband, Dragiša’s dad was a kidney and heart patient. I was planning to donate a kidney to him, but he died of heart problems when he was 45 and he bequeathed me to keep my kidney for Dragiša, because he was treated from the age of three at the Institute for Mother and Child. He was diagnosed with kidney problems already at such a young age, although the doctors said that he will end up on dialysis much later or that he might not even need to undergo dialysis at all.

We kept the disease under control until the corona, which accelerated everything. Dragiša was 26 years old at the time. He contracted corona, which immediately attacked his weakest organ, in Dragiša's case, it was the kidney. Up to that point, my son had led the life of a healthy young man, we had the disease under control.

It is the time when Dragiša's serious fight with the disease began.

First, we did dialysis at home, every 4 hours, during the night. As a parent, I followed all that, they even trained me to bandage my son.

In parallel with such forms of dialysis, we fought also with Dragiša’s abdomen pains. Because of the pains, we used to spend a lot of time in the Emergency Centre. In the end they kept Dragiša in hospital for six months and we still could not detect the cause of such pains. My son was admitted to hospital at the end of 2021, where he was kept all the way until May 2022. He was discharged weighing 30 kg less, he literally weighed 35 kg when he left the hospital.

During his stay in hospital, these six months, I was preparing everything for our trip to Turkey, for a transplantation. We raised the funds through the organization „Budi human“ (’Be Humane’) and „Pokreni život“ (’Start Life’). Both of my sons were engaged in folk dancing, so cultural and artistic societies were also involved, there were concerts, parties organized, and my company was also involved. My son didn't even get to be on the list in Serbia, we were forced to find a solution elsewhere.

At that moment, the whole world was caught by the corona virus epidemic. Doctors in our country were diverted to covid centres, teams that did transplantations were assigned throughout Serbia, there were no surgeries. I realized that I was losing my child in Serbia and that the only salvation and solution was to go to Turkey.

We set off for hospital in Turkey in such circumstances. Those excruciating pains that Dragiša suffered all the time were our biggest problem. We did not know what would happen, so we headed for Turkey. Today, from this point of view, we interpret everything as big fear that my son felt, because he was aware that his father died only after two and a half years since the beginning of dialysis. He lived in fear that death was lurking. Today, when he speaks about it, he thinks that it was an exaggerated fear that occupied his head, and which actually made pressure in the abdomen.

On July 18, 2022, we arrived to Medipol hospital, and we were already on the program for the operation on July 27. It took them only a couple of days to prepare us. Everything was perfectly organized, they performed as many as ten examinations per day, they organized a translator for us, we met our doctor and team which would be doing the transplantation. The only objection was that all this was very expensive.

Dragiša was in a terrible state at that moment. He overslept the whole journey, he wasn't even aware of what was happening, he was very exhausted, he was simply running out of strength. And no matter how hard I tried to give him strength, he didn't expect that surgery will be the solution. While he was being prepared for the operation, there was no pain, but after the transplantation was completed, the pain returned, and he had the same seizures as in Serbia.

Transplantation went well, the doctor told us that I donated a good kidney and after 4 days I got up and started walking. After 15 days Dragiša left the hospital, but as the abdominal pain kept coming back, he was taken back to the hospital. However, they adjusted his diet, the pain started to decrease, and we returned to Serbia after a month.

After returning home, my son began to recover, to live, to walk, to eat more diversely.

Today, Dragiša has fully recovered. We celebrated our anniversary in our yard. This is where my son played his first kolo, (traditional folk dance) since the surgery.

When I look back on that entire period of our lives today, I realize that I was guided by the motto that life is a struggle and that we are now running a life marathon and that I must win in that race, win a gold medal. That kept me going. That gave me strength. People tell me that I am mother courage. I think that is the most noble thing that a parent can do for their child, to give him a part of himself and thus, for the second time, give him life. For that you have to find strength and tell yourself that there is no surrender until victory.

Find out more about the campaign The Most Important Call in Life at the following address: www.najvaznijipoziv.rs