JANE HANSEN THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH JUNE 08, 2014 4:54PM
WHEN Tanya Bozic looks at her new baby she can barely believe the miracle that is Mila.
Ms Bozic, who suffered chronic kidney disease for 12 years culminating in a kidney transplant in 2011, had been told that she would never have kids but that was before she came across Sydney transplant physician Jeremy Chapman.
I just cry when I look at my baby, it’s just amazing, the transplant team and Professor Chapman, now I can do everything normal and actually have a baby, it’s nothing short of a miracl
Professor Chapman, who heads up Western Renal Services, has just been named the number one expert on kidney transplantation in the world.
The news has not come as a surprise to Ms Bozic, who says she owes her life and that of her daughter to Prof Chapman.
Best of the best – How they ranked
The top global experts in kidney transplantation, as determined by Expertscape, include:
1. Dr. Jeremy Chapman — Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia
2. Dr. Flavio Vincenti — University of California San Francisco, USA
3. Dr. Daniel Brennan — Washington University, USA
4. Dr. Herwig-Ulf Meier-Kriesche — University of Florida, USA
5. Dr. Klemens Budde — Charite Campus Mitte
6. Dr. Arthur Matas — University of Minnesota
7. Dr. Josep Campistol — Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
8. Dr. Giuseppe Remuzzi — Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri di Bergamo
9. Dr. Lionel Rostaing — Toulouse University Hospital, France
10. Dr. Bert Kasiske — Hennepin County Medical Center, USA
“I just cry when I look at my baby, it’s just amazing, the transplant team and Professor Chapman, now I can do everything normal and actually have a baby, it’s nothing short of a miracle,” the 32-year-old from Smithfield said.
Prof Chapman does not consider himself a miracle maker.
“No, absolutely not, it’s a team of 20 to 30 people and I’m just the figurehead,” he said.
Nonetheless, he has been ranked at the top of a world list by Expertscape, a global organisation which objectively evaluates the top medical specialists and their contribution to science.
The 60-year-old, who has worked at Westmead Hospital since 1987, has been involved in ‘a couple of thousand’ kidney transplants in his 30 year career and said the honour was both surprising and a little embarrassing.
“At one level it is surprising because I know all the guys on the list and there is a marginal difference between us, but the real message is we have a great transplant team at Westmead and we are performing strongly,” he said.
When he began his career in the 1970s three or four patients out of every 10 would die after a kidney transplant, now there is only a 2 per cent mortality rate and some patients even go on to have babies.
Tanya Bozic with her ‘miracle’ baby Mila and the man who made it all possible Prof Jeremy Chapman. Picture Craig Greenhill Source: News Corp Australia
This week Prof Chapman and the team welcomed two such babies into the world, both born to mothers who have had kidney transplants.
Ms Bozic said she felt privileged to have had such a great doctor. “That is just amazing, what an honour to have had him, I feel so lucky we have had the opportunity to have this happen here and I am able to have my miracle and here she is.”
Conception and successful pregnancy is rare in women with chronic kidney disease due to a high risk of complications, including rejection of the transplant, but both Ms Bozic and Kylie King, another transplant patient of Prof Chapman, have given birth at Westmead Hospital in the past week.
Ms King, 38, welcomed baby Addie into the world this week. She is a few weeks premature but in perfect health.
“I’m very, very lucky but I think all the doctors in the team deserve to be number one,” she said.
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