Kidney Transplantation for Daniel Westling (May 2009)

[Empress]

Has anyone considered the following: That the surgery was postponed, even slightly?

From what I know of transplants, if the donor or the recipient have even the slightest hint of a cold, fever or infection, the suregery is postponed until both are given a complete and total clean bill of health.

Say that the surgery was scheduled a week earlier and they had to postpone it due to one of these reasons, and orginally Victoria would have been there?

And frankly, if she were there, I can only imagine the media circus that it would have been. So maybe it is better. Nonetheless I would never have left my husband.. But then again I am a mere mortal!

[christinacg]

I'm very familiar with kidney transplantation and I can tell you that the rest of Daniels life will be filled with taking medications every day, going in and out of the hospital because of infections and possibly needing another transplant someday. For some patients, they heal very quickly and for others its a very long, hard road to recovery. I hope all goes well for him though. I hope his father is doing well too.

[COUNTESS]

So is she. A mere mortal. All the other stuff is man made. How people lead their lives is, really, their personal business, even though I commented before. I don't, believe, I could have left, but who knows the pressure put upon her. She has obligations, bigger than this, etc. Bless them both and I hope for the best.

[kalnel]

I thought it was strange that she wasn't there, too, but maybe Daniel really didn't want her there. He seems like a very stoical person, so maybe having a worried, upset fiancee by his side would have been quite distracting and upsetting to him (or his father.)

Or, maybe he didn't want to see headlines like, "Victoria puts her duties second to be by Daniel's side." He already comes in for a lot of criticism, so he may not want to be viewed as the man who took the future queen away from her responsibilities.

Or, perhaps she's blocking time to spend with him during his recuperation -- probably an occasion when he'd be a lot more grateful for the company. (The former mayor of Washington, D.C., the scandalous Marion Barry, had a kidney transplant recently, and he was out of the hospital in 3 or 4 days. If an elderly man (with other health problems) gets out that quickly, Daniel may be home by the time Victoria finishes her trip.)

Who knows??? All I know is that I don't. ;-)

[Zonk]

I must admit I too was taken aback by Victoria not being present for the surgery but Empress is right (as are a couple of other posters).

1) This surgery could have been postponed from an earlier date when Victoria was going to be in town.
2) We don't know the conversation between Daniel and Victoria. He is aware of her duty and responsiblity and could have expressed his desire for her to honor her committments. We will never know.
3) A kidney transplant is no joke! As someone mentionied it before...I can't believe this hasn't gotten out before.
4) There are other patients at the hospital. Adding the royal family to the mix would have caused a lot of confusion and stress for other patients.

With all that in mind...I hope for a speedy recovery for both Daniel and his father!

[coffeeclaws]

I too would like to convey my wishes for a speedy recovery for both Daniel & his dad..

[Lena]

Expressen writes today, that the court hadn´t planned to reveal the transplantation at all.
It wasn´t that they released the statement and Expressen wrote about it, but Expressen had contacted the court about it and then they had written the statement.
Kungens plan: Ingen skulle veta att Daniel Westling varit sjuk - Nyheter - Expressen.se
So I guess we can read the Greenland trip as "red herring"
The Westlings obviously wanna keep their private life very private.
But as I´ve said earlier there would have been other ways of distraction and considering the "traffic" in an university hospital (visitors, patients, staff, nurses, docs, students...) it´s very unlikely to keep such a surgery secret.
I guess we can now forget his presence at her birthday in about 6 weeks. Way too many ppl. It would be nice, if we would get a photo though...

Aftonbladet writes, that one kidney wasn´t working anymore and the other one had low function.
And Expressen says Jonas Bergström paid a visit and brought fruits and newspapers.

[Boris]

Bottom line: The Royal Court wanted to keep the surgery a total secret, indeed scheduled the Greenland trip to divert from it, but newspaper 'Expressen' did get wind of the surgery after all, and its inquiry forced the Palace into releasing the late night press statement on Wednesday.
Maybe everyone meant very well here, but I consider the policy of trying to keep Westling's very serious health issue a secret most ill-advised.
It's certainly hard enough to live with the disease, but living with it under the pressure of becoming a public person and a member of the Royal Family while trying to keep the disease hidden from everyone as if it was a shame to have it?
That's an impossible situation to prolong forever, brings along innuendo and - to be blunt - constant lies, which would only have put even more stress on the patient and others involved.
I'm actually glad that the story leaked, in the end everyone should feel a sense of relief about it.

[HRHofNothing]

Has the Swedish Royal Court lost their marbles?

How could you realistically keep this information a secret? The surgery took place in Stockholm. Did they expect no one to recognize Daniel Westling!?! It is one thing if he had travelled to London or better yet the States to get the procedure done. Very few people there know who he is and it all would have been relatively anoynmus. But there was no chance that this was gonna get done anonymously in Stockholm or anywhere else in Northern Europe. And the Royal Court should have been smart enough to realize it.

Yes, I don't think there will be any public apperances from Mr. Westling on Victoria's Birthday. I dont think there will be any official apperances at all before the Nobel banquet.

[Lena]

Maybe the idea was to keep it secret until they would know, the new kidney works, doesn´t get rejected and until the immunosuppressants can be reduced. So that he could present himself as "healthy" strong man.
And somewhen he would have said in an interview "Well, you know 5 months ago, I had a kidney transplantation. Everything works so fine..."

But since Victoria´s birthday is so close...we probably would have gotten feed with other lies and how silly, it would have looked, if he wouldn´t have been present.
So it´s probably indeed the best...also for other patients, who wait for organs. "Daniel effect" might mean more organs for them.

[Lena]

Victoria gave an interview to Aftonbladet, here some excerpts

-I talked to Daniel on the phone yesterday evening and also to one of the nurses. It had gone well

Victoria tells, that Daniel Westling´s father Olle, who donated the kidney, feels good as well.

-It´s clear, it´s a big surgery. But I´m trusting the doctors completely, so it feels very good

-Is it possible to relax now a little?
-Yes, now I can start to relax

But all worries didn´t go

It´s clear, that this is now a period of uncertainty. But it feels safe to know, that he is with a very good team

-How was it to go to Greenland, while knowing, that this happened at the same time?
That felt a bit so-so. But one can´t do anything there. And he is in the best hands, one can think of.
　
-This trip had been planned for a long time and couldn´t be changed. So the decision was this way.
　
-The condition was so, that one couldn´t wait longer. So it wasn´t possible to postpone the surgery
-That was a surgery, we were looking forward to.

Hon ville inte åka | Nyheter | Aftonbladet

[norwegianne]

One would think that the Swedish court might have followed on what happened in Norway when King Harald underwent two major surgeries within short time of each other. They were incredibly open about it, and, if I recall right, King Harald said that not being open about it would have led to more problems in the long run, which they had learnt from the renovations at the Palace.

Privacy is all well and good, but once Daniel proposed to Victoria, that ship sailed for him.

[Boris]

Without a doubt, transparency from the start - as described by norwegienne here in the example of King Harald - would have been the far better option for the Swedish Royal Court.
Had 'Expressen' not gotten wind of the truth, the situation might indeed have 'led to more problems in the long run', and once again the lack of sound PR & media advice for the Bernadottes appears to be glaring.
I hope the King and Queen realize that they do need more professional people than they currently have in their press department to deal with this matter and other issues in the future.

Thank you very much for the link to the interview, Lena - it's a good thing that CP Victoria decided to face the press as a means of damage control. A prolonged silence all through the visit to Greenland would have produced an even more awkward situation.
According to the article, although the kidney transplant has been known for a long time to be necessary at some point, Daniel Westling’s condition had considerably worsened recently, and he had been on dialysis.
Victoria is described to have been ‘tense and taciturn’ upon arrival to Greenland and ‘still low-key’ now, which is not surprising.
Needless to say, the situation after a transplantation remains tense for a few weeks, though a transplant from a close relative stands a far better chance to escape rejection.

[Catharina]

The newspapers and tabloids today are all about the King wanting to keep Daniel's illness a secret. Daniel Westling does have a serious illness that will require special arrangement throughout his life. Did the government know about this when they had to decide whether to allow the Crown Princess to marry Mr. Westling or not? If they didn't then this is a serious issue.

Daniel will have to keep a low profile for the new couple of months, maybe even six months. His immune resistance will be extremely sensitive to any kind of infection and the upcoming possible big outbreak of influenza A H1N1 next fall doesn't sound good if you think about his situation. I can understand why the King hasn't been as happy about the union as he might have been. Daniel's situation now and his illness in the future means that he will probably have a more subdued role than could have been. He will always need to have access to medical personnel and will continue to be more vulnerable to infections than an average healthy person. That means that traveling, meeting lots of people etc. will mean a threat to his health.

Unfortunately in any case the illness means that he probably won't have as long life as he otherwise would. The illness isn't hereditary (that's what is most important in royal marriages, providing an heir) but since it is over a year until the wedding and Daniel's health being fragile at the moment... I suppose the illness doesn't affect the ability to reproduce..? He will need to be extra careful and unless major breakthroughs in medicine happen, he will also need several kidney transplantations in the future. That might mean that the future Queen would be seen performing her duties alone much more than we thought.

Oh, and I almost forgot, could the illness be the reason Daniel and his father are both teetotalers? Daniel's father has known since Daniel was born (or in the early years of his life) that he might have to give his son one of his kidneys and has decided to abstain from alcohol. Daniel of course has never had the choice, I believe his health has made it clear that he cannot in any circumstances drink alcohol. Of course they might both abstain from it regardless of health issues but just a thought. And of course after the operation, either one of them definitely cannot ever have even a little sip of wine.

[Lena]

Daniel's situation now and his illness in the future means that he will probably have a more subdued role than could have been. He will always need to have access to medical personnel and will continue to be more vulnerable to infections than an average healthy person. That means that traveling, meeting lots of people etc. will mean a threat to his health.

I am also wondering about that. I guess trips to countries with hygiene problems wouldn´t be often on their agenda or Victoria would go alone.
Some countries have a high rate of TBC and viral infections and that´s really nothing, Daniel can need

Unfortunately in any case the illness means that he probably won't have as long life as he otherwise would.

That´s difficult to say. Transplantation medicine will high likely undergo some changes in the future.
Already these days rejections can be controlled with antibodies (which also play more and more a role in the treatment of cancer) a lot better than some years ago.
At Standford university blood stemcells of the donator got implanted and so immunosuppressants could be reduced, some patients even go without ones.
As it seems Daniel had a high compliance as patient...and if he would keep that in the future and would profit from new treatments, his lifetime might not be reduced in comparison to the average...

I am wondering, if his sister is meant as second donator. It would make sense to accept the older kidney now and to go with one his age in case of rejection/dysfunction...in a time, when probably the situation would improve for transplanted patients...

It´s said patients should wait one year until they would reproduce (what Victoria and Daniel need to do anyway)
And sometimes medication needs to get adjusted. As some are said to be more mutagenous than others.
But all together the medication isn´t really having an negative effect on fertility (it´s only that pharma groups wanna be on the safe side legally)
Many patients get sperm frozen or fertilised eggs though. And I guess a fertility test got done. Sperm quality would often improve after transplantation, but if it is very low already, it most likely wouldn´t get normal later either.
But I´d bet my arm that isn´t the case with Mr. W.

I am actually doubtful Daniel´s condition was known from early on. Ultrasound wasn´t as developed in 1973 as it is today...and if he could go that long without dialysis, his disease was probably slowly progressing and not causing any problems in the beginning (unlike some other anomalies, which need intervention directly after birth)
As I get it, Daniel and his father aren´t complete teetotalers.
Alcohol is usually more damaging for liver patients...but a certain reluctance towards alcohol might indeed come from the knowledge about the disease...

I am wondering if "non hereditary" is true actually. These days it wouldn´t matter. And as dishonest, they wanted to handle the whole matter, one can get such ideas.
The norwegian way to handle King Harald´s cancer and heart problems was indeed a lot better.

[Catharina]

Thank you for an excellent post, Lena! It did clear up many things for me. I do hope that Daniel as a prince would take an active role in advancing the medical research in this subject y acting as a figure head. Sweden has taken an active role in stem cell research and I believe it would be entirely possible that we would see significant progress in treating illnesses like this in the future. That is, of course assuming that there will be enough resources and funds to continue.

[MARG]

Now I think we all know why the wedding isn't until next year. Time to recover, time to heal, time to get healthy.

Although he has had this condition for a long time it does not mean that it didn't unexpectedly worsen. Life happens and you have to roll with the punches. Daniel being merely a commoner fiance would not shield him for the media and world at this time as was able to be achieved by Norway's King Harald.

[emmeleia]

I never thought that Victoria had such serious problems....

As for Daniel, a difficult royal life awaits him. Will he make it?

and he is toooo young to have such serious problems...in 20 years time how he will be?

[PrincessofEurope]

i really wish Daniel and his father all the best in the next few weeks and months

There is a future role for Daniel to bring awareness to his disease and organ donation - he could become active within Sweden and elsewhere to highlight kidney disease and use his future position as the husband of the (future) Queen to help other people.

[sgl]

Originally Posted by PrincessofEurope

i really wish Daniel and his father all the best in the next few weeks and months

There is a future role for Daniel to bring awareness to his disease and organ donation - he could become active i within Sweden and else where to highlight kidney disease and use his future position as the husband of the (future) Queen to help other people.

This is an excellent point, PrincessofEurope! Organ donation is an excellent cause, and I can't think of any royal that is involved in promoting it.

I hope that Daniel recovers quickly, and is able to enjoy a better quality of life.