Norfolk woman becomes first patient to have so-called 'dead kidney' transplant

A patient waiting for a kidney transplant in Norfolk has become the first woman in the world to receive a so-called 'dead kidney' as a transplant.

68-year old Laura Thompson from Rockland All Saints had been on dialysis for the last four years, spending up to three hours at a time, five days a week on a dialysis machine at home.

Then a kidney was found to match hers, but it had been rejected by all 24 transplant centres in the UK because it had been taken from the donor too late meaning the blood had not been flushed out of the kidney well enough for it to be transplanted successfully.

But thanks to new technology being developed at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge for the last 10 years, the kidney was flushed out using a new type of machine, making it viable for transplant.

Prof Mike Nicholson is a transplant surgeon at the Cambridge hospital, and he's been behind the creation of the new machine and idea.

It will mean that many kidneys previously thought to be unfit for transplant, could now be revived using his 'resuscitation machine'.

Warm blood is pumped through the removed kidney using the machine to trick it into thinking it is still inside the human body.

Prof Nicholson believes this is a better way than packing the organ in ice as is currently done.

Laura had her transplant just before Christmas and is doing well. She has to take a mixture of anti-rejection drugs, sometimes up to 20 pills a day.

She is also being monitored closely by staff at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

17% of kidneys offered up for transplant are rejected because they are taken too late.

Now this machine could bridge that gap, making more kidneys viable than ever before.

Click below to watch a report from ITV News Anglia's Emily Knight