“I’ve never felt more alive.”
These are the words from former Port Elizabeth resident Jason Kotzen, 42, who on July 16 2019 received a kidney from a perfect stranger.
Now based in Johannesburg, Kotzen and his donor, Port Elizabeth resident and Bayworld curator of reptiles Varla King, 42, were going to meet up in the Bay to celebrate their one-year anniversary since the operation at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, but travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic have put a dampener on their celebrations.
“I would have come to Port Elizabeth to see Varla, my family and friends to celebrate, but that will have to wait until it is safe to do so,” Kotzen said.
“For now I’m just going to be spending time with my kids and having online celebrations to mark the milestone.”
Kotzen was diagnosed in 2012 with chronic kidney disease. As the years went by, the disease progressed into kidney failure and he had to have dialysis to stay alive.
At the time, doctors warned him that he would eventually need a new kidney.
The future for the father of two was bleak.
King heard about Kotzen’s story from a mutual friend, Kelly Rose.
“A mutual friend who went to primary school with Jason sent out a general WhatsApp on August 10 2018 asking for a kidney for a friend,” she said.
For King, it was a no-brainer.
“I gave it to him because he needed it and I didn’t. The research shows that as long as you are healthy enough you can live perfectly fine with only one kidney,” she said.
Before the operation, Kotzen’s quality of life was poor.
“One cannot understate the difference it makes to have energy. Even when I don’t get enough sleep I still feel so much better than when I’d get 10 hours sleep before the surgery,” he said.
“Before my transplant, I was also always cold, often even in summer. It still feels strange for me now that I almost never feel cold.
“Also, I have so much extra time now. I don’t spend an hour every night getting ready for dialysis and more time in the morning disconnecting.
“I have something back that I probably never appreciated until it was gone — freedom. I can travel wherever I want to now.
“Prior to the transplant, travel was difficult to near impossible to arrange and so I almost never did it. Of course, freedom has been taken away from all of us for now because of coronavirus, but I know that it is temporary.”
Even though Kotzen has a clean bill of health, he has to take extra precautions to keep safe during the pandemic.
“Covid-19 carries a high mortality rate for me so I don’t go out to the shops at all. I order everything, including groceries, online.
“I clean my groceries with water and bleach when they arrive. I’ve also been working from home since a few weeks before the lockdown. I prepare all my own meals too.”
Kotzen has to see his nephrologist every two months to check that his kidney, called “Merlin”, is healthy.
Since the transplant, King has gone back to Jiu Jitsu and is functioning well with one kidney.
She is taking all the necessary precautions during the pandemic.
“If I get a bad case of Covid-19 and it affects my organs, it would affect both the kidneys I had. I know it can be a deadly illness, even if someone has no other conditions, so I am taking all the reasonable precautions.
“However, there is only so much I can do. Beyond that, I am trusting God to keep me safe and healthy. If it is my time to go, I’m at peace with that, just as I was when I had transplant surgery.
“I am not going to sit around worrying about something that may not happen and that I cannot do any more to prevent. I will continue to enjoy my life in healthy ways.”
King and Kotzen are the best of friends and can’t imagine life without each other.
Kotzen said: “I’ll always be grateful to her! She not only greatly extended my life expectancy, but she also gave me back my quality of life.”
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