Ealing Surgeon Saves Water Polo Player's Kidney
Super-fit athlete Toula Falvey laid low by rare condition
Toula Falvey now watching the water polo at the Olympics on TV
A 21-year-old American athlete narrowly avoided losing a kidney in a rare condition which could have seen the organ die within an hour due to a sudden blood clot of the renal vein.
Toula Falvey who went from training with her national water polo team to barely being able to walk in the space of a few hours prompting her to say, ‘You never know what’s round the corner, do you?’.
She had been spending the summer in the UK training for the World University Games and was enjoying her first taste of independence when a stomach ache quickly turned into severe abdominal pain and vomiting.
She was rushed to Ealing Hospital where the initial diagnosis was a troublesome kidney stone before scans revealed a swollen kidney that may already have died due to blood clot of the renal vein.
Martin Malina, an endovascular surgeon, said, “It’s an extremely rare condition where blood being pumped into the organ via the renal artery is trapped because the renal vein leading out of the kidney is blocked”.
It was a shock for the super fit British-American citizen who had never been to hospital in her life.
“One moment everything was fine, the next I was in hospital being told I might lose a kidney. It’s been quite a week.”
Surgeons carried out an initial procedure which involved an overnight infusion of a powerful medicine into the kidney to break up the clot. A second procedure the following day saw the remains of the clot removed with the use of wires guided into the vein via an entry point in the groin.
Martin added, “It’s a tough thing for anyone to go through yet alone a young athlete whose family are several thousand miles away.
“Luckily, there was still a trickle of blood passing through her kidney when she arrived which gave us enough time to rectify the problem. Expert multidisciplinary input by radiologists, transplant surgeons and nephrologists was extremely helpful.”
Toula said, “Martin was reassuring and kept things light after I told him I didn’t like needles or blood. I was so relieved when he told me the procedure seemed successful.
“It’s been a real whirlwind of a week but I can walk a few steps now and am already thinking about when I can get back in the water.”
Toula is now taking her mind off things by cheering on two of her friends who are currently competing for the Canadian water polo team in the Tokyo Olympics.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
July 28, 2021