Best Valentine’s Day gift given to a Langley man by his wife

It is the ultimate gift of love.

A Langley man is set to undergo a kidney transplant this week.

Anil Bhatt has been dealing with end stage kidney failure for the last few years. His kidney function has slowly deteriorated to the point where he now only has 11 per cent left. He is at the point where he needs to go on dialysis or get a transplant.

Finding a donor in the South Asian Community can be challenging, but as it turns out he didn’t have to look very far for help. His wife Vineeta is a compatible donor and will undergo surgery alongside Bhatt.

Her act of selflessness will save her husband’s life.

While she is a willing donor, Bhatt was less than thrilled to put his wife through this ordeal. He was filled with doubt when the doctors said Vineeta could donate.

His initial reaction was to say no and wait for dialysis but that, he says, is when the reality of the situation hit him. The transplant was inevitable and with two small boys at home and being the sole income earner, there was no doubt what he had to choose.

Bhatt said he started to think about the future — “I don’t want to die.”

Last year, BC Transplant set a record for transplants with more than half of all kidney transplants in 2016 coming from living donors.

Increasingly those surgeries are happening preemptively; which means the recipient undergoes the transplant before they are sick enough to require dialysis. BC Transplant has put significant focus on preemptive kidney procedures and by keeping patients off of dialysis, it costs the health care system less.

It also allows surgeons to operate on healthier people and the outcomes for patients tend to be better.

Bhatt is still working two jobs, and has no symptoms but by doing the surgery now, his recovery should take considerably less time.

“My doctor told me after dialysis, transplant is really scary,” Bhatt says, “I’m better off to go straight to transplant.”

For both the donor and recipient the surgery is still risky, but the couple has every confidence this is the right decision for them, and for their family.