Domingos’ story

I was born in Portugal in 1952 and got my medical degree at Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa in 1975.
There are two main reasons behind my decision to donate a kidney:
- I have never had any significant disease or needed regular medication. This makes me feel enormously privileged.
- I have always believed that we should ask ourselves what we can do for other people, whether he is a neighbour or a stranger.
I am not a religious person.
I assume that each of us must ask ourselves this intimate question.

From 1980 until 2021, I worked in Nephrology at Hospital de Santa Cruz (Lisbon region), having headed the Kidney Transplant Unit for more than 20 years. In the last 5 years I was also the director of the Nephrology Service at that hospital.
I was President of the Portuguese Transplantation Society for two periods.
As a Nephrologist, while evaluating a few hundred candidates for kidney donation, I had the opportunity to observe striking examples of generosity and solidarity from renal patients’ relatives and friends.
These examples inspired me deeply. They also influenced me when I was president of the Portuguese Transplantation Society and played an advisory role in the building of the Portuguese transplantation legal framework.
Some years ago I decided to carry out an assessment to see if my physical conditions were good enough to become a kidney donor. Firstly, I realized a full medical evaluation, similar to the one I had used for many years when studying donor candidates.
When I saw all test results were normal, I stopped acting as a doctor in this process and officially put myself forward as a kidney donor. In other words, I volunteered to give one of my kidneys to anyone in need, no matter who.
After being checked by two different transplantation teams, I became the first candidate for a non-directed kidney donation in Portugal.
Some months later, I was operated on and one of my kidneys was implanted in someone I do not know and who does not know me. And we will never find out about each other.
This whole process was kept confidential, including the timings.
Later on, I agreed to the public disclosure of my donation. I did this in order to raise awareness about the medical safety of being a kidney living donor. I wanted to show that donating a kidney is less risky than many people fear it is.
This act of donating a kidney has brought me great joy, mainly for two reasons:
firstly, I have been told that the person who received my kidney no longer needs dialysis and is in overall good health;
and, secondly, the story about a doctor – a nephrologist – who donated a kidney appears to have led to a significant increase in the number of donation candidates in Portugal.

Nephrology is a specialty in which there is continuous scientific progress with an impact on the study and treatment of kidney patients.
The number of people affected by kidney disease has grown exponentially. It is mandatory that we continue to study ways to prevent, slow down the progression and treat this situation which, everyone agrees, has become a worldwide epidemic.
I have always believed that patients’ treatment, mainly when they have chronic diseases, needs and deserves a multidisciplinary approach.
ERA has played a significant role in increasing scientific research and disseminating awareness among healthcare professionals who deal with renal pathology.

ERA is a very important scientific society as it allows great sharing of knowledge among its members and also with the general public.
To be a member of ERA means a particular commitment to belonging to a vast community that has the vocation of improving the health of kidney patients.