"I have two birthdays. I consider myself reborn the moment my father's kidney started beating inside my body. The joy I felt when I held my two children in my arms after receiving a second life through my father's gift of life was beyond words."
Lee Eun-hwa (41), whom this reporter met at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital's outpatient clinic in Seocho-gu, Seoul on January 6, smiled and said, "I never knew before how precious an ordinary day with my children could be."
Lee's life came to a halt in late 2016 when she was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease at age 31. She tried to appear strong in front of her parents, saying she would wait for a brain-dead donor transplant since she was still young. But reality was harsh. In Korea, where there are more patients waiting for kidney transplants than brain-dead donors, the average waiting period reaches 8 to 10 years. As she began a life tied to hemodialysis for four hours a day, three times a week, despair set in. As if that weren't enough, her condition progressed to uremia, where abnormally high levels of waste accumulated in her blood, making it difficult to even breathe, let alone eat.
It was her father, well past his 60th birthday, who turned back the clock for Lee after she was rushed to the emergency room. Her father, then 65, said "Haven't I lived long enough at over 60 years?" and readily volunteered to donate one of his kidneys. While her three older sisters and the rest of the family were all blood type A, her father was type O, and his compatibility test results showed no problems. For organ transplants such as liver and kidney, receiving organs from donors with the same or compatible blood type reduces organ damage, and organs from type O donors can be transplanted to recipients with other blood types. On January 17, 2017, her father's kidney, donated without hesitation, began beating again inside his daughter's body. This was the day Lee received her second life. After regaining her normal life, Lee met her current husband and got married around age 34.
As peaceful days continued, her desire to have children grew. But everyone around her tried to dissuade her. For organ transplant patients, pregnancy and childbirth are challenges bordering on taboo. First, pregnancy itself is difficult due to the effects of medications taken to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ. Whether the transplanted kidney can maintain stable function even after pregnancy must also be carefully monitored. Some post-transplant medications can cause fetal abnormalities and must be discontinued before attempting pregnancy, but failed medication adjustment can trigger rejection. Risk factors such as gestational hypertension and proteinuria also abound. In such cases, not only can the pregnancy fail to continue, but the transplanted kidney can also be damaged.
Professor Yoon Hye-eun of Seoul St. Mary's Hospital's Department of Nephrology, Lee's attending physician, recognized the couple's resolute determination to truly have children. Fortunately, Lee was in a condition where pregnancy and childbirth were possible with proper management. While post-transplant live birth rates are high, cases like Lee's where both children were conceived naturally and delivered naturally are extremely rare. Professor Yoon carefully coordinated the entire process leading to delivery, including managing asymptomatic bacteriuria that continued during pregnancy. Thus, Lee welcomed her first child Chae-i (7) in 2020 and her second child Eun-cham (3) in 2024. The "passing down of life" was complete, with the life her father gave passing through his daughter to his two grandchildren.
The successful lives of transplant patients are becoming evidence of hope for patients and families facing transplants. Lee Ji-won (34), who faced death before her first birthday in 1994 due to liver cirrhosis from congenital biliary atresia, has become a full-fledged member of society through Korea's first living-donor liver transplant. Living-donor liver transplantation, which transplants part of a living person's liver, can prevent deterioration of the patient's condition without waiting for brain-dead donor organs. It also has the advantage of superior transplanted liver quality since there is no risk of liver damage that can occur during the brain death process. However, it was also known that compared to brain-dead donor liver transplants, the surgery is much more complex and carries higher risks of complications, making it difficult to guarantee high survival rates. The image of a young girl who received part of her father's liver at 9 months old now proudly fulfilling her role as an adult member of society has become a meaningful milestone in Korea's organ transplant journey. Mr. Bae, who received a kidney transplant at Seoul National University Hospital 46 years ago, continues to break the country's longest survival record. At this hospital alone, 47 patients have survived more than 30 years with just a single transplant. This completely shatters the past misconception that transplanted organs have a lifespan of only 10 to 15 years. Professor Yoon emphasized, "Organ donation doesn't end with saving one patient—it leads to the beginning of a family, a generation. It has already been proven that with a timely transplant, patients can easily live 30 to 40 years, so I hope a culture of donation becomes more active so that more people can return to society in good health."
