Dilemma of mother whose son, 13, has more kidneys than he needs

When Maclaud Chakara suffered severe stomach pains, his mother could only think that he had eaten contaminated food — until a doctor did an ultrasound scan on the 13-year-old and found he had three kidneys.

The boy’s mother, Mrs  Sarah Ambogo, said the Standard Five pupil in Mbale had no health complications since birth. But one day, he went to fetch water and experienced a sharp pain in his stomach.

“Two weeks ago, I decided to take him to hospital,” Mrs Ambogo said on Wednesday last week.

Doctors at Vihiga District Hospital suspected he had malaria and gave him drugs, but even after three days, he was still in pain. That is when they carried out an ultrasound on him.

In a telephone interview with the Nation, Dr Ahmed Swahir of the Kidney Centre in Nairobi said the existence of more than the normal two kidneys is rare but need not cause alarm.

“Some people have even four while others have only one. Many people live a normal life until an ultrasound is conducted on them. That is when they discover they have extra one or more kidneys,” Dr Swahir said.

An extra kidney does not have to be removed urgently, unless it is not functioning well or is infected. He said the boy should be examined well to establish if one of the kidneys had duplicated or he was born with three.

“The boy could be having a duplex collecting system where every work done by one side of his body is doubled,” he said. In a duplex collecting system the ureter drains the top half of the kidney while the duplicate may drain the lower half.

Most people who have three kidneys have good body metabolism, only that they might constantly get urinary tract infections.
However, he said it was illegal for the boy to donate the kidney since he is only 13.

Maclaud’s mother said she wished they could get rid of the extra kidney. Her challenge however is that they do not have enough money to enable him to undergo check-up and surgery.

Her wish for the boy to donate the kidney is however not allowed by the Kenyan law. Only when he attains the age of 18, will he decide whether or not to donate the kidney.

Ms Jean Orwa, Kenya Kidney and Lupus Foundation director, said having an extra kidney was not risky, so long as metabolism was normal.

In Kenya, the age bracket of kidney donation is between the ages of 18 and 60, although doctors say that the law on donation and use of human organs is not well stipulated.

“Legally, no one is authorised to certify the donation of internal organs on behalf of another. Despite the high demand for organs at national hospitals, principles have to be observed,” Mrs Orwa said.

A few years back, she said, the sale of organs was possible until crime rate in Kenya increased. It was presumed that criminals killed their targets and sold their organs to ailing people.