Lara Wahab
(Picture: Supplied)A London woman says she missed out on a vital kidney and pancreas transplant because there was no space in the ICU for her.
Lara Wahab, who lives with type one diabetes, was told more than two years ago that she needed the transplants because of end stage kidney failure.
After a long wait, a “great” match became available on October 31. But the offer had to be refused by specialist medics at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, said Ms Wahab, because there were too many Covid patients in intensive care.
She said: “I feel like I’ve been robbed, I feel completely devastated. I was at Hampstead Heath and I had to leave because I was in tears.”
The advertising executive had originally been told she would wait 12 months at most but the procedure has been repeatedly delayed.
After not hearing about any potential offers since April, she contacted the Royal Free Hospital who advised her to ring her consultant in Oxford.
When she did, she was told while medics had really wanted to accept a suitable offer, they could not over lack of ICU bed space caused by coronavirus.
“He said, ‘I have to be really honest, Covid is still having a massive effect on our services. And there’s occasions where we do get an offer but we can’t accept them because ICU is full,’” Ms Wahab told the Standard.
“When those words were said to me … I had my chance, and was denied it, and for what?”
The 33-year-old now faces an uncertain wait for another transplant option, and doesn’t know when it will arrive.
The Trust’s chief operating officer, Sara Randall, said: “We understand how difficult this must be for the patient concerned but when a patient waiting for a life-changing transplant operation is matched with a suitable organ, our clinical teams make every effort to secure an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed post-transplant.”
“Any decision not to proceed with an operation is considered very carefully.
“In line with other NHS Trusts across the country, our transplant programmes have been impacted by Covid-19, however, we did as much as we could to keep our services in operation to deliver life-changing transplants.”
Those spreading Covid misinformation and refusing the jab should be ashamed, said Ms Wahab, saying if they end up in ICU, it can cause people to miss out on life-saving donations.
“They’re just selfish, they have no compassion,” she said. “It makes me feel like vulnerable people are forgotten - it’s not my fault I’m ill, I want to keep having a life, why should I miss out on my chance?
“My message to them would be to just think about what your actions have on other people’s lives.”
In 2020-21, transplant activity was down to around 80 per cent of normal levels as the country battled Covid’s peak.
