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After the birth of their second-born in 2008, the Njoroges were working on plans to secure their children’s future when disaster struck. Their first-born child Fyona Wanjiku Kabitta was diagnosed with stage four kidney failure when she was in Standard One.
“She suddenly started experiencing fevers, lost appetite and her frolics around the house were replaced by subdued moments of solitude,” said Walter Njoroge Kabitta, the father, a businessman in Mombasa.
She underwent a thorough medical check-up. The urine showed traces of blood.
The diagnosis was that their daughter might be suffering from a kidney problem. They were referred to a nephrological paeditrician to manage the condition.
When Fyona took a kidney biopsy, her kidneys were found to be one stage away from total failure. The parents were assured that their daughter’s condition was manageable through dialysis and were given six months to prepare for a transplant.
However, two months after the biopsy, a total stranger they met during a family day out pointed out that the child had swollen feet.
Fyona was found to have swollen eyelids and face, meaning her condition had retrogressed from manageable to critical due to her rising blood pressure.
The emergency required a donor, and the father stepped in to save his daughter’s life. Compatibility tests were conducted and fortunately he passed. The tests came at a cost of Sh60,000. The family had already depleted savings and had no idea how to raise the Sh3 million that was required for the operation.
After several fundraisers, the parents left their eldest son, Eldon, with an aunt and flew to India.
After going through procedure with their surgeon, father and daughter were wheeled into the surgery room on December 6, 2011. They opened up the father at 6am and the daughter 20 minutes later in an operation that lasted six hours.
“It was the most terrifying moment of my life...,” says the mother, Beatrice Matu Kabitta. “We had no relative in India. I remember pacing the corridors of the entire facility praying that they make it alive. God in his mercy answered my prayers.”
After two-and-a-half months, the girl was discharged and the family flew back. “My father had promised that we would fly to India where he would donate a kidney to be transplanted in my body and it happened just as he had said. I really love him,” said the young girl.
Fyona, who is on anti-rejection medicines for life, recently celebrated her fifth anniversary after the surgery. She is now in Standard Seven with a very satisfactory academic performance.
The 12-year-old, who hopes to teach engineering when she grows up, swims, participates in athletics and generally enjoys a perfectly normal childhood. She has to visit a post-kidney transplant clinic every month.
“She is very faithful to her medication and takes them every morning and evening at 6:30,” said her mother.
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