30/07/2025
"When a person offers their organ to keep someone else alive... I still find it hard to comprehend. That kind of courage, that kind of love. In renal medicine, I see it happen. Family, friends, even strangers stepping forward to donate a kidney. For some it changes their life too, giving something so personal brings a deeper kind of happiness. That generosity... it’s part of what keeps me in this job.
How did I get here? Well... We moved from Kuwait to New Zealand when I was eight, but my family is Egyptian. At home, I was surrounded by medical talk. My parents are both doctors, my grandfather was too. It wasn’t pushed on me, but that kind of atmosphere seeps in. I actually started out in engineering, but kept circling back to the idea of care. Helping people as a doctor is more fulfilling.
Renal medicine drew me in. It’s complex and scientific, but also deeply human. You’re walking alongside people through something life-altering. Kidney failure takes people back to their rawest selves — and yet, there’s this profound sense of hope. Seeing someone come off dialysis after a transplant… it’s a full-circle moment. You don’t forget those."
Dr Mahmoud Amer works full-time in the Taranaki Renal Unit. He is a dual-trained nephrologist and general medicine physician, and contributes to both general medicine ward rounds and oversight of the Taranaki Renal Unit.
