Parmjit’s Story

My name is Parmjit Minhas, I donated my kidney to my husband on June 14, 2004.

Three months after the birth of our first child, my husband was diagnosed. At that time, in 2002, the doctor had told my husband that he would eventually need a kidney transplant as both his kidneys were failing. He had about 20% function left at that time and were told that there was no way to ‘repair’ the kidneys.

I did not know what my blood type was until I was looking over hospital records, giving detail about the birth of our daughter. I couldn’t believe it, I matched my husband’s blood type. At the time, he refused to take a kidney from me. His dad had the same blood type as him but had high blood pressure for most of his life, so he was cancelled out. His only brother and mom both did not match. Several of my family members also got their blood tested and did not match.

By now, my husband had started dialysis. He was always feeling sick after dialysis; vomiting, head aches, restless legs – the list goes on. After nine months of watching my husband’s body and health deteriorate – I made a decision to start the testing process for donating my kidney without telling my husband. Halfway through testing, I told him. At first he was completely against but I insisted.

Now, ten weeks post surgery, my husband is doing great and I am feeling great myself. Donating my kidney to my husband was definitely the best decision I had ever made!