SINGAPORE - Madam Ong Bee Ai was overjoyed when the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) told her in April last year (2020) that she was finally receiving a kidney transplant after a four-year wait. But the hawker's joy turned to devastation when SGH later informed her she was unable to have the transplant after a Covid-19 swab test revealed she had contracted the virus. Madam Ong, now 52, who used to run marathons and practise taekwondo, felt like her life had collapsed when she found out in 2016 that she had IgA nephropathy, a condition that left her with just 5 per cent kidney function. This meant her kidneys were limited in their ability to clear waste and regulate the water balance in her body. As a result, Madam Ong had water retention and vomited often; her weight plummeted from 58kg to a mere 38kg. She needed to undergo dialysis thrice a week, with the treatments costing $3,000 a month. A kidney transplant would improve her quality of life, but she was able to undergo surgery only in January this year after she recovered from Covid-19. Dr Ho Quan Yao, a consultant at SGH's department of renal medicine, explained that after a kidney transplant, patients have to take medication t...