Source: The Mercury, 12 January, 1997, p.5 Source: The Mercury, 12 January, 1997, p.5
By CATHERINE LAMBERT THE Royal Melbourne Hospital had just 24 hours to find Pat Grundy and give her a new kidney and another chance at life. But the 56-year-old mother of three, who had been waiting four years for a suitable donor, was nowhere to be found. She had gone to Queensland for a holiday, her pager would not re- spond to frantic calls from Royal Melbourne, and at- tempts to locate her through the police, taxi companies and countless phone calls failed. The breakthrough came on Sunday morning when the Grundys, get- ting an early morning start as they headed to Maleny,near Maroochy- dore,turned on the car radio. "It was near the end of Macca's program which I have been listening to every Sunday morning for years," said Mrs Grundy. ".......I heard this voice that I knew was Kim's [her daughter]. .....I heard her say there was a kidney available and we should contact her by noon". Professor Gavin Becker, Mrs Grundy's surgeon and the director of nephrology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, said she came dangerously close to missing out on the transplant. "There was a 95% chance that the donor kidney would take to Mrs Grundy's tissue type, which is why we tried so hard to find her," Prof Becker said. "Normally we would have offered them to someone else." He said people could wait up to six years to receive a suitable kidney according to blood and tissue type. Each person has six different tissue types and five of Mrs Grundy's types matched the donor's.
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Index - Chance and Basic Probability