THE granddaughter of the surgeon who performed Jamaica’s first kidney transplant — 25-year-old Taylor Douglas — says her family never imagined that decades later, she, her father, and her uncle would all need the very surgery her grandfather, Professor Lawson Douglas, pioneered locally.

Taylor revealed that both she and her uncle were diagnosed with end-stage renal failure in 2022, while her father had been living with the condition since she was about three years old. Her uncle received a kidney transplant earlier this year, and her father has already undergone two transplants.

Now facing her own medical battle, she has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the cost of her surgery.

Given her age and her family’s deep connection to the history of kidney care in Jamaica, Taylor told the Jamaica Observer that the diagnosis was both ironic and heartbreaking.

“Everyone was very shocked. I think my dad took it to heart. He definitely blamed himself, and he does blame himself for me being sick, which I keep having to remind him and myself that it’s not anybody’s fault, things happen, and you can’t control certain things. You can’t control what time or day this is gonna happen.

“It has been assumed that my great-grandfather, my father’s father, died of kidney complications, and I think that was the push for my grandfather to really go and do almost all the things he did. They didn’t really know at the time that it was genetic. We still don’t know if it’s genetic, but we’re assuming [that it is] because of how many people in the family have kidney issues.

“We didn’t know at the time, because it skipped my grandfather’s generation completely. Nobody in his section of the generation pool got any kind of kidney issues until my dad, so it wasn’t really something that was expected,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Taylor Douglas and her uncle Jaime Douglas who were both diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 2022.

End-stage renal failure is the final stage of chronic kidney disease, during which the kidneys can no longer function adequately to sustain life. Without treatment, such as dialysis or a kidney transplant, the disease is fatal.

The condition is common in Jamaica, with an estimated one in seven people having the diagnosis.

Professor Douglas performed the country’s first kidney transplant — a groundbreaking surgery at the time that marked a new era in Caribbean medicine — in 1970 at Kingston Public Hospital. He also led the first living donor transplant, along with his colleague Professor George Nicholson at University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) in 1987. The transplant programme continued until 2001, with a few live donor procedures taking place at KPH between 2001 and 2005.

Transplant programmes continue to exist at UHWI and Cornwall Regional Hospital, in collaboration with international partners. However, Taylor noted that many Jamaicans, like her uncle, often seek donors overseas when faced with issues finding donors locally, and she intends to do the same.

A final-year student at The University of the West Indies pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and two minors at the time of her diagnosis, Taylor said her entire world turned upside down when she received the news.

“Unfortunately, when it happened, everything happened so fast, where my health was concerned, so I wasn’t able to graduate that year, and I missed quite a few of my classes that I needed to complete my degree. That was really heartbreaking because I just graduated last year. To go from, ‘I only have one year left,’ to ‘I’m spending almost six years at university,’ was a struggle,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Taylor disclosed that her current treatment regimen includes dialysis three times a week — sessions that often leave her drowsy and struggling to stay alert in class. She said the rigid dialysis schedule has also taken a toll on her social life, as her treatments extend into the weekends, leaving little time or energy for social activities.

Professor Lawson Douglas performed the first kidney transplant in Jamaica.

Despite the challenges, the young woman pushed through to complete her undergraduate degree and now hopes to pursue a master’s in psychology. However, balancing graduate studies with dialysis and her role as an assistant at Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (JSPCA) would push her into overdrive.

“I would love a transplant. I can’t really stay on dialysis for my entire life. It is not a very good quality of life with dialysis three times a week. I have to take time off work to go to dialysis, and sometimes, if I’m not careful, I can go maybe a day or two out of work because I’m just that exhausted after dialysis; I can barely get out of bed the next day,” said the 25-year-old.

“I have had some offers for some donors through my friends, because my family can’t donate, but unfortunately, they’re not a match for me, so I had to go elsewhere, which, of course, is New York,” she explained.

Taylor said her family discovered a programme that helps match kidney donors with recipients by guaranteeing a kidney in exchange for a donation. She said she will need US$150,000 to cover the cost of a transplant. The funds will go toward necessary medical tests to qualify for various donor and recipient registries, travel and accommodation for the procedure, as well as post-surgery medication.

Faced with the steep expenses, she launched the GoFundMe campaign, ‘Support Taylor’s Fight Against Renal Failure’, to help offset the medical costs.

At the time of publication she had raised US$20,937.

“It’s going slowly but surely. I’m forever grateful to those persons who have donated,” said Taylor.

However, she noted that she still has a long way to go before she can afford the life-saving transplant and is appealing to Jamaicans for support.

“It would change my life drastically. I could go back to school and pursue my master’s. I could spend time with my friends the way I’d love to, volunteer, and do the things I’m passionate about — even travel, if I could afford it. I want to be out in the world. It’s not that I’m not living now — it’s just restricted,” she explained to the Sunday Observer.

She also issued a heartfelt plea to the Government to build out a national transplant programme and increase public education to encourage organ donation so that other Jamaicans in need can have easier access to the organs required for a better quality of life.

“Not everyone can afford to travel overseas. I’ve seen people of all ages — children and adults — die while on dialysis. It’s so important that the people you’re counting on to help build the economy are as happy and healthy as possible, and access to transplants is a critical part of that,” she said.

Click here to access Douglas’s GoFundMe.