Thanks to a kidney transplant at the PA Hospital, Brisbane father of two Jack Bravo has a new lease on life.
Jack received a kidney transplant in 2025 at the PA and credits the operation with helping him to not only live longer and be free of the burden of dialysis, but also in allowing him to return to the workforce.
Jack’s journey began in 2019 when unbeknown to him he learned he was allergic to penicillin and it had caused serious damage to his kidneys.
He would begin peritoneal dialysis in November of 2023 when told by doctors his kidney function was at just 30 per cent.
Though it kept him alive to be with his family, including two teenaged children and wife Jessica, the ongoing strain of regular dialysis heavily impacted Jack’s quality of life, much of which is now returning thanks to his transplant.
“I had to drive an hour to work and back. and because the machine was going off because of a blockage three times a night, for more than six months, I was waking up three times a night. I was basically shattered and realised I had to resign from my work,” Jack explained.
“It does make an impact on your daily life because you've got to plan dialysis around everything, because you need to be on it for so many hours, so you have to plan your whole social life around that.”
When the call came in from the PA, Jack knew the potential it had to change his life for the better.
“Smack in the middle of the night, I got a phone call saying, “we have a kidney for you, do you want to accept it?, you've got half an hour to think about it” and stuff like that’,” he said.
“I spoke to my wife and she goes, “yes, just do it right now”.
“I took up the offer, and I honestly thought that I was going to be rejected because I had a bit of weight on me and there are like strict rules around that, but they allowed me to proceed.
“They reckon that if could have been just the fluid retention that allowed me to go ahead, once it was all out, I was within the parameters of the rules for a transplant.
“I went in there and a lot of people spend like a week in there recovering. I think I was out of there by four days.
“It was a quick recovery in that sense. But then came the after surgery care where I had to go and begin the post-transplant procedure. That was a lot of information to get together. My wife was there, she understood as well, so we went through everything.
“The doctors and the pharmacists were very good at explaining what every single medication did to my body and stuff like that.”
Jack is determined to make the most of his fresh start and his body is accepting the donor kidney well, with his appointments with his care team at the PA now at six weeks apart.
He is conscious of his diet and his creatine levels and has found his nutritionist at the PA a great support in those efforts.
“As soon as they said, “oh, you can come back in two weeks”, I started looking for a job again,” he said.
“I'm working casually now, which is great, because I still have appointments that I’ve got to keep. I’ll have to get a blood test or something related to my transplant. Now because I've got that flexibility, I can actually go and get it done.
“A few weekends ago, I went camping. with my wife, just overnight, and I was able to load the gear, unload the gear and set it up with my wife. We spent the night there, didn't have any issues whatsoever.”
