04/28/2021 4:46 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 04/28/2021 4:46 PM
In 2018,
Eduardo Salice (45) made
headlines when, after a six-year wait, he was able to get a kidney donor.
At that time the story did not have a happy ending: the security protocols of the G20 summit that was held in the City prevented the arrival of the organ and
the transplant was truncated
.
He had to wait
two and a half years
for the possibility to occur again.
And this time, it was possible.
During the past week they were able to perform the transplant.
The donor?
Natalia Tobio, his wife
.
“Today we can tell about it, and it is something nice.
But it was really
quite hard
”, summarized Natalia in an interview conducted by the
Los Andes newspaper
.
The excessive restrictions of 2018 that at that time were a nightmare for many porteños, had left much more painful consequences for the native of
General Alvear
, Mendoza.
The kidney he was waiting for, after a six-year wait, would never reach him due to the cancellation of the Aerolineas Argentinas flight and the blockade provided by security protocols.
Eduardo Salice and Natalia Tobio had to fight against adversity after a failed transplant in 2018. Photo Courtesy of Diario Los Andes
Salice started dialysis at the age of 24 and in 2005 she received a kidney transplant, but her health declined again and since 2012 she had to go back to dialysis.
"What happened is incredible: what could not be done by the G20 Operation
was done in the middle of the pandemic,
" Natalia continued with the story. Of course, she was in charge of clarifying that "it was not easy to solve it."
During the two and a half years, the family had to contend with various adversities.
The first is that it was very difficult to get another kidney that had a
98% compatibility
as had been achieved with the donor from La Plata in November 2018.
And the other major hurdle was overcoming a family tragedy.
Almost a year after the failed transplant, a domestic accident ended the lives of Natalia's parents: the failure of a heater caused them to die during the night asphyxiated by carbon monoxide.
Salice and Tobio in one of their family photos.
Courtesy Los Andes Newspaper
"Now I can tell you, but we really had a very bad time. We were both in Alvear, alone with them. It's like so many things happened that one wants to forget and solve the immediate," Tobio recalled.
Regarding the possibility of a new transplant for Eduardo, Natalia reviewed: “After what happened that November 30, 2018 and the transplant that could not be done, we waited a lot.
We updated the waiting list so that it did not decline, but at that moment nothing came out, "he said.
At the end of 2019, they decided not to wait any longer.
"We spoke with one of the nephrologists at the Spanish Hospital. I told her that I wanted to be a donor and we found out what there was or could do. It was between October and November 2019 that we started with everything," the woman continued.
"After a lot of bureaucracy, they confirmed that we were compatible. There it was time for the visits of a social worker at home, a psychological follow-up and the explanation of everything that we had to do -especially Eduardo- once the transplant was done", Natalia reconstructed with the story.
In the middle, the couple and their two children went through the coronavirus pandemic, where Eduardo, due to his health problem, had to suffer more than necessary: they removed his parathyroid, his fistula was covered twice and they had to do a vascular access in the neck.
At the beginning of the year and with the pandemic more controlled, a window was opened for Eduardo and Natalia to carry out a new "cross match" (pairing).
And towards the middle of February, from Mendoza capital they gave the go-ahead for the transplant to move forward.
The operation could only take place last week: on April 22.
Now, the couple, from General Alvear, continue in the capital of Mendoza completing the post-operative recovery.
With extreme care for the health of both, and with much to tell, after so much suffering.
DD