HYDERABAD: Withstanding the ‘Drake Shake’ isn’t for the faint-hearted. The nearly 1,000-km waterway from Cape Horn at the tip of South America to Antarctica, where three oceans meet, is a rite of passage for any adventurer, with waves rising as high as 30 ft. When Sneha Raju set out on the 48-hour journey, dreaming of setting foot on Antarctica, she never imagined it would be more challenging than the continent itself. “I never had seasickness or thought I would fall ill, but I did. One can’t even stand straight or lie in bed.
During the 48 hours, you’re advised not to drink water so the stomach stays empty. But I had to take my regular medicines and ensure I didn’t throw up. I also can’t go without water for that long because I need to keep my kidneys hydrated,” Sneha recalls. Holding on for dear life and battling the swelling seas, she finally made it, becoming the world’s first two-time kidney transplant recipient to complete an Antarctica expedition.
In a way, it encapsulates her life. At the tender age of three, she contracted a throat infection, which ended up damaging her kidneys. “I was brought back from the US to Hyderabad on the insistence of my grandfather. I had my first kidney transplant after I turned seven,” Sneha, who now works at NCC Limited, recalls in a free-wheeling chat with TNIE.
She later had cerebral malaria, which affected the transplanted kidney when she was in college in 2013. After four months of dialysis, she had her second transplant. “Luckily, both my donors are my family members. I was very lucky that way,” she says.
Having completed her MBA with a double major in business law and marketing, she turned to trekking by accident. During a trip to Amritsar and Manali in 2011-12, she and her group had to go through the Rohtang Pass. As it was not easy to walk, she was forced to take a mule that promptly shook her off.
“I took that as a sign that I should stick to my ethics of not using animals and walked with my guide despite advice not to do so at that altitude,” she explains. Miraculously, that moment changed her life. She found she could thrive in the Himalayan heights. In her own words, mountains have been kind to her. “I never had to take the support of oxygen or tablets for nausea.”
Not even when she subsequently went to the Everest Base Camp. The problem with being a kidney patient, a two-time one at that, is that she could be perfectly healthy today and it all could turn upside down in a couple of days. On the way to the base camp, she saw the fittest individuals who did breathing exercises, lived in gyms, being evacuated for medical reasons.
“I had no issues, though I had to be on medication every day, lifelong,” Sneha says, crediting her fitness regimen for it. Her parents were obviously worried about her adventures, but as she says, she has a way of persuading them. “My life has been in hospitals. I remember playing with nurses and donning the doctor’s attire at my grandfather’s hospital. By seven, I had learnt how to administer injections to myself! I have realised that if you are meant to die, you can sit at home with 100 people protecting you and a fan could fall on your head. It is that easy. If it is meant to be, it is meant to be,” Sneha, who is now 34, muses.
And in a city like Hyderabad, people ask questions and pass judgements regardless of her qualifications. “I am fascinated by the Himalayas. It gives me the most peace,” she adds. Sneha has travelled to Bhutan, Ladakh — including the Chadar trek — and Tawang, among other places. She also crossed the Antarctic Circle, experiencing sunlight and freezing temperatures simultaneously during an 11-day stay in Antarctica, when the sun never sets.
She does what she does for mainly one reason. “If I can do it, anyone can. It was more of a push for my fellow transplant recipients. We can do things that normal people cannot. My goal is to show that you can live a better-than-normal life,” she asserts.
Sneha has a counter question for people. In India, it is extremely difficult to get an organ donor. “Unfortunately, we are the most populated country in the world but barely have any organ donors signing up. That is the sad part. If at least 40% of people sign up as organ donors, we would be in a much better place. I wish more people come forward,” she hopes.
Sneha gives talks at hospitals in Bengaluru and Hyderabad to give comfort and strength to patients and friends in the Kidney Warriors Group. For those with kidney transplants, there is never a guarantee. It could last lifelong, it could be a couple of months or a year. “When I was a kid, I wish there was somebody who could tell me and my parents that everything would be okay,” she says. Sneha is doing exactly what she has missed. Her life against odds is a lesson in grit, hope and resilience more than any record.