You can survive on only 25% of one kidney - Korle-Bu CEO

The Chief Executive Officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah, has explained that if a person is healthy, he or she can live on only 25% of one of their kidneys.

He said that there are many redundant organs in a person’s body and by that, if the kidney is functioning properly, it needs only about a quarter of one of the two for a person to live healthily.

Dr. Ampomah said this during a media briefing to announce that Ghana had chalked a major breakthrough in kidney transplantation after a wholly-Ghanaian team of doctors performed the first procedure in Ghana.

He stated that it is also the case that many people only notice they have problems with their kidneys when it is too late.

“Many of us, the first time we have any signs is when it is too late. I’m not a nephrologist but from my medical (sic) I know that you can survive on 25% of one kidney. So, by the time your body starts showing signs of kidney problems, then that means that most of the kidney is already gone.

“What I’m literally saying is that if you take out one kidney, and the other kidney, take out three-quarters if it, and just leave one-quarter, that one can be able to keep you going, that’s if you’re healthy,” he explained.

Watch him speak about it here:



In the meantime, watch the latest episode of #SayItLoud on GhanaWeb TV with Etsey Atisu below:





AE/WA