Randall kicking all the goals

As one of Port Adelaide’s most revered players, the only thing Randall Gerlach wanted was to win a grand final and leave football on a high. But that meant putting his body on the line – a risk he was willing to take. Going against doctor’s orders, Randall played in the 1977 grand final and ensured he had his fairytale finish. But then aged just 24, he was forced to retire to focus on his health. He had been playing with advanced kidney disease for at least a year.

He then went through an unspeakable ordeal – more than 25,000 hours hooked up to a dialysis machine, two decades of seeing various doctors, and three failed kidney transplants. The antibodies that protected him from the disease attacked and destroyed each new kidney he received. So, he was told he was un-transplantable, and had resigned himself to a lifetime of dialysis.

But that was not to be the case. Thanks to a new medical advancement from research at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Randall became one of the first to benefit from a new approach which stopped his body rejecting a kidney. And not only that but it was his generous daughter Amanda who chose to donate her kidney to him.

“It is still hard to believe. For the first time in almost 30 years, I’m not having to endure five hours of dialysis three days a week. It’s like a new start in life.”

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital renal transplant nephrologist Dr Toby Coates believed Randall was the perfect candidate for a new pre-operative procedure designed to remove the antibodies from his system. For two weeks leading up to the transplant, Randall took a new drug to stop the body creating new cells. Existing antibodies were washed from his plasma.

Then, just 24 hours before the proposed transplant, Randall and Amanda’s blood was sent for cross matching – a perfect match!

Since then, there have been no signs of rejection despite close and careful monitoring. Randall’s quality of life has improved significantly.

“It’s the first time since this all started that Marilyn and I can go on holiday without having to pre-arrange dialysis and interrupt my holiday with regular visits to a hospital. It’s an incredible feeling!”