as long as the managers do not go to day nothing more of a change you know the banks being new to mind and so was the language of the bank the money. for speaking the truth global news that matters g.w. made for mines. finally leo has a new kidney. thanks to an organ donor he can live a normal life. the biggest it's a gift it's mine now i have to look after it properly. the way it's also over for maggie thanks to a donor she now has a new look. just like you know just

a single day goes by when i don't think of the dyna i feel like this soul is part of me still fun to know. i mean it was. an organ transplant gave leo and maggie a 2nd chance at life we accompanied them for 4 years. to spring 2014 to 24 year old laon hot dog looks like he's in perfect health but appearances can be deceiving. his kidneys have stopped working and that means his body isn't being detoxified. layo studies medicine in hamburg and is spending a year in paris he doesn't want to see illness to dominate his life. and.

be almost an ide i'm vain enough to not want people to notice i'm sick and sometimes i'm my own worst enemy sometimes i get so exhausted i just can't keep going on about us blasting gun wasn't going to go to. for the last 8 years leo has needed regular dialysis he's waiting for a new kidney until he gets one of his quality of life is severely restricted. as a medical student he knows how long the wait for a transplant can be. in germany the number of people willing to donate their organs is in decline. and from what is there it wasn't supposed to take that long i was 16 when it all started i was told an organ would definitely be found by the time i left school but that came and went then i was told it would happen before my 1st medical school exam i'm still waiting. 3 times a week he undergoes

a 4 hour session to clean his blood it involves an overnight stay in the hospital. no. question it's usual. and it's it's a drag not to sleep at home in my own bed my own space and i'm attached to a machine that's pretty loud. but my life depends on that machine. and. the session lasts until 5 o'clock in the morning then goes home and sleeps it off. 54 year old mensch hild was fed is also waiting for an organ transplant. meggie as her friends call or has a genetic disorder that led to abnormal blood vessel formation in her lungs and caused life threatening damage.

i live my life changed dramatically 4 years ago. so for us to be a very active person i broke a motorbike i was full of energy. and then i went into hospital and they said i had to give up work but. i had to retire. and it has got worse from year to year. the former office clerk rarely gets to leave the house these days she has difficulty breathing they need supplemental oxygen her mother held of all spent says she's very brave. courage cheers us all out of that she's stronger than the rest of us and that helps us cope. to meg and her

partner close becca it feels like all they're doing is waiting for a donor. you have a great if you think we have no quality of life we're. going to we can't just go out for a pitts or to the pub for a beer or take a car trip and. we can't do anything. this is. just that maggie just wants to be able to enjoy life again. i'm from housework and the 1st i was constantly waiting for the phone to ring. i was scared of the surgery because i know it's no picnic but now i know that is what i need i want to see my son get married i want to be a grandma my dream is to ride my motorbike alone lug a majority coach my men's dance troop my men are by look like. they're all just waiting for me to be well again. today maggie has to go to the hospital for

a long function test every 2 weeks her father drives her to the routine check up. if you want. to live for 6 minutes make he has to walk as far as she can. if. she can't manage more than 4 metres it's obvious she's in desperate need of a new long obese not swiping i was a little at this right i don't think i can last like this for another 2 or 3 years so it really shifts given how much worse i've got in just one year fi don't think i'll need a new long in a couple of years it's work. in the. back to paris. is even though. there was

a girlfriend is visiting from hamburg he and danielle i met at the university she's also studying medicine here. his illness is a challenge. so it puts a heavy strain on the relationship. of his with and he whispers that you mustn't be selfish but it's hard when i 1st came to paris to see him i'd never been here before so of course the 1st thing i wanted to do was explore so i'd been looking forward to it it's the city of love and he had the afternoon off but he'd been working in the hospital in the morning and when he came home he needed a nap. and then it was 6 in the evening and time for his dialysis questions acts were obviously done yourself so we did you. know. but there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon the clinic has called to tell a way about a potential donor but it doesn't work out the donor organ goes to another recipient

. more than once you keep telling yourself a donor will be found it'll definitely happen and then when it doesn't it's a setback sometimes it's hard to stay positive and in the. summer 2014 a suitable donor has died maggie is finally getting a new long the transplant is a complicated procedure that takes over 6 hours. maggie is recovering well the risk now is that her immune system rejects the new organ. and it is there for it to complete this. story. she and klaus are optimistic. the moment he came out of the blue we got a call in the morning from the doctors saying they had a donor. and if we came in straight away and she had surgery in the evening we were

all on the edge of our seats but it went well for the over and over that we're just so happy because we just want to start living our lives again. autumn 2017 leo has a new kidney. because it was proving so hard to find a match his father donated a kidney. there was now 27 and enjoying life to the fullest. daniella have taken a year off to travel. at the moment they're exploring the us in a camper and. my life was always good it's just that i was very sick i didn't even realise how sick i was until i had a comparison then i realised what it's like when you can actually do everything you wanted to kind of a case does my hong kong most when i was very. before the transplant foreign

travel was out of the question. sightseeing in san francisco i wander around chinatown in the past even short trips within europe were difficult. isn't well a long time and if we wanted to go on holiday in italy we had to plan every last detail i had time you had to make dialysis appointments everywhere and to get in touch with doctors and send over reports it was always a massive undertaking. but that's all over. the difficulties of the last few years are long forgotten. past the friendship of laos still attends regular checkups and also takes medicine but he's adjusted easily to his new found freedom. i don't feel blood this is

a normal life you forget that waiting for an organ donor is an exceptional situation once you have a new organ things can go back to normal but it's not like a huge explosion before something for other. life has also gone back to normal the transplant was 3 years ago but maggie is now 57. at one point her body began to reject the new law. but her doctors managed to get the problem under control with medication. when you really believe it will be all right then it will be when if i was determined to live dying just wasn't an option but the thought of my family having to grieve for me was terrible not the thought of dying when.

her parents say their faith in god helps them. i pray for mesh told every night and giving thanks for her health we mustn't ever take it for granted use is. manage her guess. in. these days maggie lives with her parents she and klaus split up. she says their relationship had been failing for a long time. but it was only after the transplant when she regained her health that she found the strength to ended. it helped me. realize that it's not unusual for couples to split up after going through this experience. it was the best solution. when you know no one pod like to find a new partner but it's not easy. so i'm far. more

like someone who shares my interests. as more you should definitely have a motorbike. and he should like dancing to. coping with serious illness waiting for an organ transplant leo and danielle have been through a lot together. they're well aware of the toll such an experience can take on a relationship. if your life permanently hangs in the balance and that can start to become the bedrock of the relationship with. the so went death no longer shadows your whole life i can imagine that you might realize. that was a very dependent relationship. and that's no longer what i want opinion with your

interests and you got to run. the form of it's ok. with. adventures or not. but when les always sick daniela consider donating one of her own kidneys. is this really just what it was a viable option. but the couple had too many reservations. and 1st started i think that if you had donated your kidney i might not of felt ok about it. and that he has kept this gift. is just the fear that. this is the i would have wondered if you felt this and you had to stay with me because the fear that that means i'm. not as i didn't like you anymore. for me there were no serious thanks for the economic and business has been littered

with sam's a no no but you might not have wanted to stay with me but i would have felt you owed money and i'd advise that's what. this is that it was such a gift in that you were no longer free to make your own decisions so i don't. know that's true but i think i would have felt obliged to stay together because i want the good the relationship might be at the time you might feel differently when you get your life back and say sorry we no longer want the same things the way we used to seems to me from the wind. because i modified. the. donation from a living person wasn't an option and maggie's case. winter 2018 maggie has started coaching her men's dance troupe again she's on her way to

a performance. when i 1st went back i had to cry. it was so wonderful to be back you know should the truth is that. the tension is mounting the troopers on stage it's megastar next. now this i'm nervous. but it will be all right if. i do the lung transplant was worse than tad more painful. than her carnival performances over thinking is happy it's a times like these she's reminded that she's only alive because someone else died. i think about that person i wonder if it was a man or

a woman. shall i be open to my happiness. i'll never forget that. leo is visiting his father they haven't seen each other for 6 months. alexander is glad to see a son travelling and living his life. he rarely talks about the fact that 3 years ago he donated a kidney to leo. he does i think listening to many for me it was just what i had to do to deal easygoing i had to take you to dialysis it's very tight the time i come. home that's the idea that it's a gift where you're already half mean for me i guess you can see it as a gift because most. think you. got me but.

it is a gift that's how a lot of people see it it's a nice description. but i see it in fairly phlegmatic it's humid as a home it's not like i feel i have something all wrapped up with a bow inside me it's just part of me. that helps me get my head around it and hopefulness and this me off the 5th i'm. going to do went well you were the right age it's now you have to do what you have to do. you said it. not often the bay area. and when you lose a father alexander can still live a long and healthy life with one kidney because there are after his son had waited 9 years in vain for a new organ they decided alexander would be a living donor the thing was often seen as more is the issue now given that it would have been great if it could have worked out another way but it is what it is

and he was starting to get worse and at some point you just need to decide. it was a pretty straightforward decision to ensure the time a calm. yeah right hi. you know it's very frustrating for me to see that there's a steady decline in organ donors in germany and that the situation isn't improving . there's an immediate correlation between the number of people willing to donate an organ and the suffering of people who need want to go out and it's on. maggie doesn't know her organ donor. but she wanted to express her gratitude and wrote a letter to the family of the deceased for the german organ transplant foundation to pass on. to the family of my organ donor it's very hard to lose a loved one but the person you lost gave me the best if you can give someone a smile. when i close my eyes and think of them i sometimes feel that they are with

me does the i'm going home. away must have been a very special person i am eternally grateful best wishes the recipient. you can bring stews to my eyes. i sent it to the foundation but if you days later i was informed that the family wasn't ready for such a letter. or in the head that i'd like to see one day but the foundation should keep it for now that's something that is what they told me but now the letter can no longer be passed on and. data protection laws have been tightened spring 2018 maggie and her father are tinkering with her motorbike strangely enough she often feels especially close to her daughter when she's on the road. comfort's why my wife's i've been in very dicey situations one side rounded a corner and

a cock came straight at me father of mine as i though i didn't bat an eyelid i just drove on and shook my head in disbelief at the terrible driver when. i knew someone was looking out for me there passed off of. do you think it's ok that i ride a motorbike i enjoy it or sup but with my new lungs do you think i shouldn't or god . if you enjoy it and you're careful then i think it's ok. but just as you ride a motorbike yourself i got my love of it from here sent out. we both like to take her a bit when it's a hobby we share. with

someone not. to move this forward. leo in daniella are also busy pursuing their hobbies rock climbing on the west coast of america. the couple want to enjoy life to the fullest it's their way of celebrating the life saving kidney transplant believing we always want rock climbing we can't start worrying now you can just avoid all risk and live in suspended animation and to us that would mean we had no quality of life. there was eager to make up for lost time but he doesn't have anything to prove to himself. as you might in fact i'm not competitive but i don't go around comparing myself to people in great health and feeling bad about it i don't feel sick i do not go climbing with the

thought at the back of my head that i'm sick and need to compare myself to others who are healthy. i like to see what normal people are capable of and see if i can do it 2. or 3 times to be. like my family get togethers with the latest addition to the family baby luisa maggie has become a grandma a dream has come true. but the bad news is that she had a fall and broke her arm. it's a nuisance i'd love to be riding my motorcycle but i can't just choose the winners so now. everyone's out on the roads and i can't join them. still it could be worse i might not be here at all to to put so i just have to deal with that.

medication weakens her immune system so her broken arm wasn't operated on that means the healing process is slower. but maggie is as upbeat as ever. they know her time is precious transplanted lungs last an average of 8 years making is now 16 and has had hers for 4 years. it's by no means certain that she could survive another lung transplant. their 5 and i've resolved to live for a long time and i will watch for that i'm not worried. i met someone with a lung transplant in the rehabilitation clinic who's been living with one for 26 years so that's completely exceptional but it does happen i'm determined to grow

old. that i'm. not sure. if this would be good if they always well aware that is transplanted kidney won't last forever he doesn't think too far ahead for 9 years his life was touch and go he's learnt to be a realistic. fisherman . to show what i felt as though i'm from 40 and i take things one step at a time and i set myself modest goals that are easy to achieve. so. so i'm tired so you have to manage the tasca set yourself you know the several stand out of the i'm just a verb that's a strategy that works for me plus i might. in

. time history ever repeat itself. germany at the time after time our republic. germany today. was just a trial font of the shadows of the past reach. back to the future. i'm on today. in 15 minutes.

welcome to the what is the game here for d. the 1st place to talk about the. phrase let's hope. the fall of the berlin wall began long before november 989. we visit the heroes of eastern europe. we talk to those who began the struggle for freedom and those who showed personal courage. the future of the fall of the wall didn't surprise me you should go 1st what does it take to change the course of history. raising the iron curtain starts september 30th on d w. o world unto itself.

with its own gravitational pull. the finest musical compositions. with some mysteries terrific. earth. building that he was into them don't tell me that that he never spoke. of or you know and the jointer come up in the morning playing. the field the symphonies of the harness pumps. how did the romantic master come up with such a passage. w. .

this is d.w. news live from berlin polls close in austria snap election the former chancellors of us and courts is the cost on favorite to lead a new government could he choose once more to form a ruling coalition that was the far right we'll go live to vienna also coming up clashes erupt at pro-democracy protests in hong.