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Man without kidneys outlives 3 months that doctors ‘gave’ him to live

By SYLVANIA AMBANI September 25th, 2016 2 min read

A man has defied all odds to survive through a terminal illness even after the doctors told him he only had three months to live.

Emmanuel Gitau, a kidney failure patient, was given the three months to live in 2007 by his doctors, but nine years later he is optimistic that God is the only one who knows his fate.

Mr Gitau was diagnosed with kidney problem in 2001, while he was in form four. His family offered to donate the vital organ for him but the kidneys donated by his, father, brother and sister were rejected by his body.

“The first transplant my father was the donor, it failed to an extent that the kidney itself was rotting. The second donor was my brother, but the doctors in India knew that it would not work for long, and true it only lasted for seven months,” Gitau recounted during an interview with NTV.

After the seven months her sister offered to give him a kidney after the one given by his brother failed.

KIDNEY TRANSPLANT

When he and his sister came back from India, the family was in jubilation thinking the worst was over. However, her sister’s kidney only worked for a month.

Fourteen year and fourteen surgeries later, the doctors advised him against the option of a transplant, instead to try dialysis telling him he would live for just three months.

“At that time I was worn out, my body was weak, but nine years later I am still alive. Only he (God) knows my fate,” Gitau says.

Gitau now lives with no kidneys and has to go for dialysis twice in a week.

“For me I have to pay to urinate. So I go for dialysis twice in a week Monday and Thursday, which is four hours per session which cost Sh 5,500 shillings and that is the cheapest,” he says.

Mr Gitau has now written a book on his life without kidneys that he sells and hopes that it will not only earn him his daily bread but also act as an inspiration to Kenyans.