An adventurer at heart, businessman Aranya Nag is happiest following his interests, which range from paragliding to scuba diving. So much so that you would never guess the various health obstacles the 50-year-old from Kolkata has had to overcome in the past decade and a half.

In 2009, Nag was diagnosed with high blood pressure and put on medication. Nag, who moved to Bangalore five year later, remained on medication for migraine until 2015, when he started having repeated episodes of vomiting and had to be admitted to hospital. The diagnosis was stage 4 chronic kidney disease (CKD), a condition where the kidneys get damaged and do not filter blood properly.

“In 2015, after the vomiting episodes, the doctors informed me that my creatinine levels were high, and I was put on medication and a strict diet,” he says.

Nag managed to keep things under control without dialysis until 2017, when his condition worsened and he had to undergo a kidney transplant. 

Chronic kidney disease

“CKD is a silent killer and the signs start to show up only at an advanced stage,” says Dr Vishwanath S, HOD and consultant nephrology, transplant physician, Manipal Hospitals, Old Airport Road, Bangalore, who treated Nag. “Despite having no such family history, Nag was diagnosed with kidney dysfunction, which progressed to severe kidney failure.”

Nag’s wife, Satabdi, was unclear about what to do at first. “But Dr Vishwanath’s words — ‘CKD has no cure and that’s why God has given us two kidneys: so we can donate one to those in need’ — moved us very much, and then we knew what our next step would be,” she says. 

The first kidney transplant

On learning that Nag would require a kidney transplant, Satabdi and her mother, Runu Roy, both offered to donate a kidney. Both of them were a match, and the family decided to let Roy be the donor.

“My mother, who was 60 at the time, insisted that she wanted to donate while she was healthy as she wouldn’t be able to do so in the future,” says Satabdi.

The couple and Satabdi’s mother were already active blood donors and had already taken part in several blood donation camps. “All of us have pledged all of our organs for donation,” she says.

Nag says the kidney transplantation in 2017 changed his life. “I started to feel more energetic and felt a lot healthier, he says. “I resumed my activities, my work, started playing table tennis and also participated in cyclothons.”

Nag now had three kidneys (of which the only donated one worked well). During a kidney transplant, the native kidneys stay intact and the new kidney is placed in the abdomen area. While the body depends on the new kidney to filter blood, the native ones too continue to function minimally.

Satabdi, meanwhile, learned to drive so she could take Nag around — and also if there was an emergency in the future. 

The second kidney transplant

Then in January 2022, Nag contracted Covid-19, which affected his immunity.

After recovering from the infection, his creatinine levels started to increase. Even dialysis did not help. This necessitated another second kidney transplant.

“I will never forget the day when I started gasping for breath and my wife drove the car during peak hours and took me to hospital,” says Nag. “I had developed pulmonary edema (fluid accumulation in the lungs) and was informed that each of my three kidneys had failed.”

This time, Satabdi wife donated a kidney — and Nag underwent surgery in March 2023, a day before their wedding anniversary.

Nag now lives with four kidneys after undergoing the two transplants. He follows a strict diet and has been advised to drink six to seven liters of water every day to ensure he stays hydrated.

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Life after transplants

Eager for adventure, the couple started travelling abroad less than a month after the second surgery.

“We love adventure,” says Satabdi. “We went paragliding, snorkelling, scuba diving and for a lot of other activities. As a donor, I don’t feel any different now. I feel the same as before and I push him also to continue to live the way we did earlier.”

Nag’s strong will and positive outlook towards life has also made a difference. “He always says that he has no challenges at all,” says Satabdi. “He takes life as it comes and makes the best of it.”

Nag and Satabdi met each other during their college days. “He has been my best friend since then,” Satabdi says. “We never proposed to each other — we understood each other so well. We decided to marry after college. When I learnt about his condition, I just knew that we were going to get through this together.”