From the Operating Room to Everyday Life: The Sustained Liminality of Kidney Transplant Recipients

Abstract

Kidney transplantation offers patients the prospect of a second life, yet this renewed existence does not necessarily mark the end of liminality. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in Turkey, this study examines how recipients of cadaveric (n = 22) and living-related (n = 26) kidney donations, along with their family caregivers, continue to navigate an unresolved threshold between illness and recovery. Data were collected through in-depth participant observation and consecutive semi-structured interviews conducted during hospitalization and the post-transplant follow-up period. The findings reveal that transplantation does not dissolve the liminal state but transforms it into a prolonged condition of uncertainty, vigilance, and moral reflection. Recipients of living donations expressed deep gratitude, often interwoven with feelings of guilt and indebtedness toward their kin. At the same time, those who received cadaveric kidneys described anxiety about carrying a stranger's organ and the moral implications of survival through another's death. Both patients and caregivers come to embody what medical professionals often describe as a different kind of patient-neither thoroughly sick nor fully well, constantly negotiating the meaning of health, normalcy, and bodily integrity. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that the second life after transplantation is not a passage to normalcy but a continuation of liminality-an enduring, shared state in which bodily, moral, and relational boundaries are perpetually redefined.