Making sense of kidney transplantation: a view from African recipients

This study investigated the experiences of African patients who have undergone a kidney transplant within the past 10 yr, either from a live donor or from a cadaver. Little is known about kidney transplantation among African patients, in particular about psychological and social responses to the process. The study examined how these patients made (and still make) sense of the transplant experience, and hence attribute a particular subjective meaning to the factors and variables which have been at play during the course of the transplant. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 African patients (8 women and 6 men), from the Renal Unit of Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. The interviewees were selected from the records of the Unit. Several themes accounted for the frameworks of meaning that patients attributed to the transplant process. These are: religion and indigenous belief systems; the role of the extended family; patients' respective routes to the hospital; feelings about the transplant; and experiences in the hospital.