Son to be given father’s kidney in transplant on live television

“Hero”: Daniel Arthur with son Eugene, who is to receive his kidney

A man is to receive his father’s kidney in a transplant shown on live TV.

Eugene McDanart, 34, will be given the organ tonight as the transplant at the Royal London hospital in Whitechapel is shown on Channel 5’s Bafta-nominated Operation Live.

His father Daniel Arthur, 53, offered to donate one of his kidneys after Mr McDanart’s kidney function declined to life-threatening levels when he developed the auto-immune condition lupus.

Mr Arthur said: “I’m donating for my son to prolong his life and to help him to live life, and live to the full.

“The prognosis for Eugene, if he doesn’t get the transplant, will be living a shorter life. You couldn’t be on dialysis for ever. At some point your body will shut down.”

His wife Dora said: “He is our son and he is too young and we don’t want him to suffer. My husband just decided, ‘I will do it for him, no matter what. I want to save my son.’”

Consultant transplant surgeon Rajesh Sivaprakasam said he hoped the live broadcast would educate viewers about kidney failure and increase organ donations

The two-and-a-half-hour operation will be the first of three broadcast by Operation Live over three consecutive nights. Mr Arthur’s kidney will be “harvested” from him earlier in the day.

Mr McDanart, who is married with a two-year-old son and lives in Basildon, was diagnosed in 2009 and has been on kidney dialysis for the last three years.

He said his father was a “lifesaver” and added: “I’m very grateful for what he has done. I wasn’t expecting it. Obviously, going through surgery, taking an organ out of your body, is not that easy a decision to make. I am at a stage where I have six per cent function in my kidneys. Perhaps I wouldn’t be here in a few months’ time. I have been given a new lease of life. I can’t wait to see what I can do with it.”

The Royal London performs about 150 kidney transplants a year, with a third from live donors.

Consultant transplant surgeon Rajesh Sivaprakasam said he hoped the live broadcast would “demystify the surgery”, educate viewers about the impact of kidney failure and increase organ donations.

“Every time I do this operation, I get amazed at what I get to do,” he told the Standard. “What Daniel has committed to do is amazing. He doesn’t get any physical benefit from it but he is taking a significant risk.

“The surgery is done in the safest way possible ... we have excellent outcomes for the donors but it’s still a risk. I always call them heroes.”

The other operations that are being screened involve spinal surgery to correct scoliosis and neurosurgery to tackle a brain aneurysm.

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