OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2012 - Parkway Pantai

29to Sri Lanka, with loveJune marked a significant milestone for Mount Elizabeth Hospital (MEH) with thesuccessful kidney transplant performed on one of the youngest recipients in ParkwayPantai’s history, by leading transplant surgeons Dr Li Man Kay and Dr MichaelWong. Dr Akira Wu was the attending renal physician.An active boy who loved running, cycling, climbing,and playing table-tennis and badminton, nine-year-oldHesith Sherwin Perera JA seemed very much like anyother child his age. Yet, belying this energetic exteriorwas a fragile boy diagnosed with a dangerous conditionat the tender age of six months old.fragile beginningsThe nightmare for the Pereras began when Hesithfirst developed fever from a urinary infection. Asubsequent diagnosis revealed that he was sufferingfrom bilateral vesico-ureteric reflux – a conditionin which malfunctioning valves in his ureters werecausing urine to flow back towards his kidneys. Whenhis urinary infections did not abate over the next threemonths, Hesith had to undergo a bilateral ureteralreimplantation – where the ends of the ureters are cutand re-tunnelled into the bladder. He was only ninemonths old.Unfortunately for the Pereras, this was not the endof Hesith’s troubles. Although he remained free frominfection, his kidneys continued to deteriorate slowlybut surely over the last eight years. By the time Hesithfirst met Dr Akira Wu at the Mount Elizabeth MedicalCentre in late April this year, the nine-year-old wasalready suffering from advanced kidney failure and wasin dire need of a pre-emptive kidney transplantation,or dialysis.Sri Lankan serendipityIt was a very trying time for the Pereras, emotionally aswell as financially. “I went to see and talk to so manydoctors in Sri Lanka, because we wanted only thebest for our only child,” revealed Hesith’s mother, MsThushara Perera.“In fact, three years ago, my former boss urged usto do the kidney transplant in Singapore. We knowthat many affluent Sri Lankans come to Singaporefor medical treatment because Singapore is one ofthe leading countries in terms of medical technology,