This woman's kidney recently celebrated its 100th anniversary

The British woman surprised the doctors with her kidney, which is already a hundred years old, but it still works fine. It is believed that this is the oldest transplanted organ in the world. Sue Westhead was about twenty years old when her 57-year-old mother's kidney was transplanted, as the girl was diagnosed with kidney failure in 1973. It was expected that the graft would last no more than twenty years, after which it would need to be replaced. But Sue, who is now 68 years old, exceeded the expectations of doctors, because the organ has been working perfectly for twice as long.

(8 photos in total)

Source: Daily Mail

The woman admitted that when she was operated on, she hoped that the transplanted organ would last at least five years: her skin turned yellow and she could barely walk. Her mom Ann donated her kidney when she found out that her daughter's kidneys were only functioning at 10%. Doctors told them that a transplanted kidney from a living donor could last a maximum of 20 years, after which additional transplantation would be required. However, 43 years have passed, and the kidney is still working normally.

Sue says that this is not a medical miracle and she strictly monitors her own health, taking about 20 pills a day so that there is no rejection of the transplant. Recalling the time when she had a kidney transplant, she says: "It was a pretty scary time... even when I was still in the ward, people were dying… I remember thinking that if I had five more years, that would be great. That was 43 years ago, and my kidney is due to turn 101 in November. I think it's all thanks to my mother's good genes."

"My mom literally gave me life, because otherwise I wouldn't have lived longer. I could barely walk and was a different color — I was yellow, and then suddenly I had a pink blush," says Sue.

According to the BBC, no one from the British Society of Transplantation, the British Association for Human Organ Transplantation, the blood transfusion and organ transplantation unit of the National Health System and the British Kidney Research Society Kidney Research UK knows of another person in the UK who would have a transplanted kidney older than a hundred years. Professor Derek Manas, president of the British Transplant Society, said: "This is an amazing story of inspiration and hope for people on dialysis. It can encourage other people to become living donors or join the Registry of Donor Organs. I think Sue is one of the longest—lived after the transplant." However, due to a lack of data, there is no way to verify whether Sue Westhead really has the oldest transplanted kidney in the world.

In February, the man who lived the longest after a heart transplant operation, which was performed in London on October 20, 1982, died.

John McCafferty was officially listed in the Guinness Book of Records in 2013.

Despite the fact that after the operation he was promised no more than five years of life, he lived another 33 years and died of sepsis and acute renal failure at the age of 73.

Pictured is John McCafferty after a heart transplant.

Last year, about three thousand kidney transplants were performed in the UK, but more than five thousand people remain on the waiting list. The main task of the kidneys is to clean the blood from garbage and remove waste with urine, but if the kidneys lose this ability, toxins accumulate and a person can die.