Five months after the kidney transplant given to him by his wife, he won the gold medal at the World Ski Championships for transplant recipients in Bormio. It was a feat achieved, thanks to the generosity of his life partner, by a 49-year-old man, a construction engineer from the province of Cuneo, with a past as a competitive sportsman, who was then forced to stop due to a kidney disease.
When he entered dialysis, the waiting list for a kidney transplant was not short, despite the fact that activity in Turin is at an all-time high, as evidenced by the recently released figure of 229 in the year 2023 alone. The engineer’s wife he then decided to offer his organ. After a careful period of analysis and examinations on both the recipient and the donor, the specialists gave approval for the operation, despite the difference in blood type.
The couple was hospitalized at the semi-intensive Nephrology Dialysis and Transplant unit of Molinette, directed by Professor Luigi Biancone. The operation was performed by teams of vascular surgeons and urologists from the same hospital, led respectively by Doctor Aldo Verri and Professor Paolo Gontero.
Not only was the transplant successful, but after just five months the patient participated in the World Championships for transplant recipients in Bormio, winning the gold medal in the giant slalom, beating very competitive Austrian and Croatian athletes.
“The power of kidney transplantation, especially when it occurs from a living donor, continues to surprise us. – states Professor Biancone – In a short time it can erase years of illness and suffering, as this case clearly demonstrates.
All this is made possible by the generosity of donors, thanks to whom numerous lives can be saved.”
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