Double-lung recipient competes in Triathlon

Grant Hagerty is a friend who received a double-lung transplant 4 years ago and has taken life to a whole new level. Since his transplant Grant has promoted organ and tissue donation through entering and finishing many events such as bike tours of hundreds of miles, downhill skiing and running. I was not surprised to learn of his latest achievement in the triathlon. What an incredible celebration of life and fitness.  

This composite photo shows Grant Hagerty in the 3 triathlon stages of running, cycling and swiming. The event took place in Gravenhurst, Ontario. Photo: Sports Shooter - "You've been shot"
More info: The Multisport Canada Triathlon Series

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

A month after surgery, Edmonton, Alberta heart transplant patient runs with family

Duane Muth received a new heart 30 days ago. Duane ran/walked the 1 km race in the Heartbeat run for the Mazankowski Heart Institute on Sunday, September 26, 2010, at Louise McKinney Park in Edmonton. Tracy Muth is Duane's wife.

Photograph by: Brian J. Gavriloff, edmontonjournal.com

By Andrea Sands Edmonton Journal.com

EDMONTON — Just one month ago, Duane Muth was in surgery at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute having someone else’s heart transplanted into his chest.

That heart carried him across the finish line Saturday at the Edmonton Heartbeat Run in Louise McKinney Park. It was an impressive feat for a man so sick last year he wasn’t even eligible for a transplant.

But a life-saving device called the Heartmate II along with stellar care at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute and a lot of hard work turned everything around for the Sherwood Park father of three.

“I’m elated. Next year I’m doing the 5K (run),” Muth said after completing the one-kilometre walk and run Saturday with his family.

“My legs are burning more than anything. Walking was a piece of cake. The running ... hills have always been my nemesis.”

Muth has been on medication for a heart condition most of his life. He was diagnosed at age 23 with cardiomyopathy and an enlarged heart muscle as well as pulmonary hypertension, with high pressure in the pulmonary artery between his heart and lungs.

Muth reached his late 40s and had to give up golf, skiing, tennis and even walking his sons to the bus in the morning. He runs his own company repairing and maintaining medical and laboratory equipment and often had to stop to rest while walking from his car to the job site.

“I was going to work on one of the blood-gas machines (at the Grey Nuns Hospital) and I fainted so they had to admit me.”

Muth’s heart was failing.

Last September, Muth asked to be evaluated for a transplant. The news was bad. His lung pressures were so high medical experts knew a transplanted heart would probably fail. They couldn’t put him on the transplant waiting list. Muth was immediately admitted to hospital.

Then the medical team gave him a different option. There was a chance that implanting a ventricular assist device (VAD) might remodel Muth’s pulmonary vessels enough to reduce the lung pressures, making him a transplant candidate, explained the heart institute’s VAD co-ordinator Selvi Sinnadurai.

“Duane was really super sick when we met him,” she said. “He was even being considered for a double-lung, heart transplant. That’s how sick he was ... so we were consulted as a team to implant a ventricular assist device.”

In November, medical experts implanted a Heartmate II just below Muth’s heart. The device measures about three inches long and weighs less than one pound, with a cable that passes through the patient’s skin to an external controller.

The Heartmate II is designed to help the left side of the heart circulate oxygen-rich blood in patients suffering from advanced heart failure.

“What we hoped for him is that, by unloading the left side of the heart, we would indirectly unload his lungs and decrease the pressures in his lungs,” Sinnadurai said.

“A treatment like this isn’t done often so we all hoped for the best.”

The results were dramatic. He was able to return to work and travel, she said.

In June, Muth was listed as awaiting a donor heart. On Aug. 27, he got it.

Today, Muth celebrates his 52nd birthday.

“I feel privileged to be here and very grateful to everyone, including the donor family and the heart institute,” he said. “Edmonton is probably one of the best places in the world to be living with a heart condition, and I’m living proof of that. I would encourage everyone to sign their donor cards.”

Muth’s 44-year-old wife Tracy said her husband’s energy level is remarkable.

“He’s always been very positive, but when you’re sick, it’s hard,” she said.

“He told me the other day that there’s not a thing I could say to him that would make him feel bad.”

To show the family’s gratitude, Tracy and the kids, 11-year-old Alex and nine-year-old twins Aidan and Isaak, signed up for the Heartbeat Run, a fundraiser for the heart institute through the University of Alberta Hospital Foundation. A few days ago, Muth decided to join them.

“I said, ‘If I feel really good, I’ll sprint for the last 100 yards,’ and Tracy laughed, because I haven’t been able to run in 20 years,” he said.

“If I wouldn’t have had the (VAD) pump I wouldn’t be here with a new heart. The pump is pretty remarkable.”

“The pump was made for you, Dad,” Alex chimed in.

Alex said he is looking forward to finally playing sports with his dad — hockey, golf, swimming and more.

“We’ll get something back in all of our lives,” Alex said. “It’s an amazing case. Just one month ago, they called at 5 a.m. and said they had a heart for him. I’m just glad he’s here today.”

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Liver patient wins 60 gold medals since transplant

By Christine Lavelle Deadlines Scotland

A WOMAN who had to have a partial liver transplant when she was just nine years old is getting to represent Scotland in a Commonwealth fencing competition.

Anna Burnett, 25, from Ratho in Edinburgh, spent most of her childhood under a blue light, after she was diagnosed with Crigler-Najjar Syndrome shortly after she was born.

The rare condition, which causes jaundice, left her without a vital enzyme in the liver used to breakdown the waste material bilirubin – which can cause irreversible brain damage if it is left to build up.

For almost 10 years Ms Burnett had to spend hours of her day under a blue light designed to break down the toxin and process her blood, with the amount of time spent under the light increasing with her body mass.

But – her life has turned around since then, as she has gone on to become the most successful transplant athlete of all time, with somewhere in the region of 60 gold medals for swimming and sprinting competitions.

And now she is gearing up to represent her country in Melbourne at the Commonwealth Fencing Open Championships.

The tournament is held separately but at the same time as the Commonwealth Games as fencing is no longer included.

Ms Burnett said: “It feels like such an achievement being able to represent my country in a mainstream international event, and not as a transplant athlete.

“I can’t wait to get going.

“I spent so long have to be in the house, under the lights, that when I was well enough to do sport properly, I just wanted to give it my all.


“As I got bigger I had to spend more and more time under the lights, because obviously I had more body mass, so it was from 7pm to 7am, and then I would have to come home from school at lunch time.

“It was quite restrictive and any time I spent outside was really special.”

At the time there were only full liver transplant operations available, and Ms Burnett says he parents were not keen on putting her through it.

But, when she was about eight years old things started to get difficult.

She said: “I was getting increasingly frustrated about not being able to go out.

“So when they heard there was now a partial operation, a graft, it was agreed I should have one, so I went on the waiting list.

“I waited six months and just before my tenth birthday I had the operation.

“I know my liver came from a little boy, but that’s all.

“When it was the tenth anniversary, I wrote to the hospital asking if I could send flowers to his parents and they passed on a letter.”

Ms Burnett, who will spend the rest of her like taking anti-rejection medication, said she knew straight away that she wanted to get involved in sport.

She said: “I was desperate to make up for lost time.

“It’s hard to say whether I would be so competitive if I hadn’t had my liver problem.

“All I know is that when I was well enough I felt so bored sitting on the sofa.”

When she entered her first Transplant Games competition, aged 11, Ms Burnett won every competition she entered, earning her the Best Newcomer Award.

After turning 18 she moved up to the adult games and concentrated on running, and two years ago at the European Games in Germany she scooped the 200m race and broke a World Record for the 400m.

But, after a while Ms Burnett said she felt as though she had taken the running as far as she could, and decided to opt for a change.

She said: “I had done some fencing at school and loved it, so when I was at university I joined the club.

“The coach there, Brandon Lim, said to me I could be in the Commonwealth squad, and I thought he was joking.

“I now train in London at least three days a week.

“I have broken into the top 50 and won silver in the Highland Open last year and I was third in the Scottish Fencing Open in January.

“I don’t know what to expect in Melbourne, but you have to go aiming for the top.”

Ms Burnett, who completed a course in fashion design at the Edinburgh College of Art and now runs her own dress-making business, said she is looking forward to the challenge that competing in a mainstream event will bring.

She said: “The Transplant Games are competitive, but there are people there doing it just because they can.

“In mainstream events though, everyone is competing to win.

“It would be amazing to represent Scotland in Glasgow at the next games.”

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Oldest heart transplant at 79 passes away at 90

Lloydminster, Saskatchewan loses prominent figure

By Chad Givson and Murray Crawford Meridian Booster

Ray Nelson – father, grandfather, businessman and community builder – will be remembered for his heart in more ways than one.

Nelson passed away last Monday morning at the age of 90 in his Lloydminster home surrounded by his family.

The founder of Nelson Lumber, now Nelson Group, was well-known in the community for his business contribution, as well as charitable donations over the years. He was also well-known worldwide as the oldest living person to receive a heart transplant at the age of 79.

"What we can all hope for is that we live a life as full as Mr. Nelson led," said Mayor Jeff Mulligan. "His biggest legacy will be his philanthropic nature, his gift of giving.

"He was a man of great vision and had tremendous strength of character. He had this overwhelming will to excel and saw how to do instead of how not to do."

Mulligan said he thinks Nelson single-handedly put Lloydminster on the business and political map.

In 2006, 44 Avenue was officially renamed Ray Nelson Drive in his honor and to further show appreciation for his work, the Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce gave Nelson the first annual Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.

Apart from giving generously to donations such as the SPCA and Interval Home, Nelson brought the Edmonton Symphony to the Border City each year. Within the community, Nelson played a role with the Lloydminster Municipal Hospital Board, the Lloydminster and District Agricultural Exhibition Association and the Lloydminster Foundation.

While Nelson was a friend to many in the community, he was also close with the Fisher family. Sam Fisher, whose father was very close to Nelson, knew him for 46 years.

"One of the interesting things about Ray is he was very prominent in the public life, but the majority of what he did was in the private life," said Fisher. "The level of contributions to the community and helping out other people he was very quiet about. He has a legacy that will go largely untold. It wasn't his way to tell it."

But Nelson was also a behind-the-scenes contributor to the community.

"A lot of his legacy is public and that was hard to avoid," said Fisher. "But I think the majority of his legacy is very private and will always be that way, which is to me a test to the humility of it all."

Fisher and Nelson would travel together and go on fishing trips to the lake, and up until Nelson's death they would still meet for a coffee.

"He certainly was a man of faith," said Fisher.

"He was the type of man that if you went for a car drive with him to go fishing, he'd stop and have a prayer for safety before you go on the road."

A service for Ray Nelson will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 11 a.m. at the Stockade Convention Centre in the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Blood test to detect organ transplant rejection

By Zara Qadir NewScientist

A simple blood test could help doctors detect telltale signs of transplant rejection. The finding may provide a non-invasive alternative for diagnosing organ rejection before damage occurs.

The technique could help the 40 per cent of heart transplant recipients who experience an acute episode of rejection in their first year after transplantation.

Normally, if organ function drops, a small piece of tissue will be removed and checked for rejection. The trouble is that the organ may already be damaged by the time doctors spot a problem.

A simple blood test for the proteins involved in the inflammatory response of rejection could provide the answer, says Adul Butte at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

To identify the protein markers involved in organ rejection, Butt and his team used a publically available repository that documented changes in mRNA levels – the molecules that instructs cells to make proteins – during organ rejection. These changes gave the team clues about which proteins appear in the blood during rejection.

From 45 protein candidates, the team zeroed in on 10 that could be identified by tests already used in a clinical setting. Using blood samples from 39 kidney and 63 heart transplant patients they found three proteins which reliably increased during an acute rejection.

Minnie Sarval, who co-authors the study, believes the test could be used to adjust the levels of immunosuppressant drugs administered – increasing them only if rejection is imminent – thus minimizing side-effects. "It could also potentially prompt doctors to conduct a biopsy [only] if necessary rather than biopsying straight away," she says.

More research will show whether these diagnostic markers can predict an acute episode of rejection before any change in organ function.

"Identifying a protein marker that is elevated in the blood before rejection damage could represent a significant advance which could enable early intervention with treatment," says Steven Sacks at the centre for transplantation at King's College London. "Their next challenge would be to examine whether patients treated on the basis of this test do better than those who do not have the benefit of such testing and who have to wait until organ damage occurs before immunosuppressant treatment is increased."

The team are now planning clinical trials and hope their test will be available within three to five years.

Journal reference:PLOS Computational biology, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000940

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

University of Victoria to honor CF patient Eva Markvoort

See my previous post and inspiring video about this courageous girl's battle with cystic fibrosis Beautiful Girl Loses Fight.

Times Colonist

Eva Markvoort's life will be celebrated at a public event Sunday at the University of Victoria.

Markvoort was a UVic acting student who died of cystic fibrosis on March 27.

She struggled with the disease throughout her life. Markvoort went into rejection after receiving a double lung transplant in 2007. The 25-year-old New Westminster native received her bachelor's degree on her hospital bed shortly before her death.

Markvoort's inspirational blog about her battle with cystic fibrosis attracted an international following. CBC TV aired an award-winning documentary about Markvoort's life,

65_RedRoses: Every Breath Counts.

Everyone is welcome to attend Markvoort's Celebration of Life, which begins at 1:30 p.m. at the Phoenix Theatre with a screening of the documentary. After a reception, a ceremony will follow at 3:15 p.m.

As a permanent memorial to Markvoort, the theatre department will plant a red rose bush with a plaque in the garden at the entrance to the Phoenix building

During her time as a student at UVic, she performed in four mainstage productions: Listen to the Wind (2002), Taming of the Shrew (2003), Guys and Dolls (2004) and Tyrants (2006).

Her acting professor, Jan Wood, said: "For one who lived so close to death, Eva embraced life completely.

"She refused to be seen as a victim."

As part of Wood's class, Markvoort once wrote a 10-minute play based on her experiences with her disease and the hospital system. A video recording of this play will be shown as part of the memorial service.

Donations can be made in Markvoort's name to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation at www.cfvancouver.ca.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Smaller LVADs may be solution for donor heart shortage

Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs), were once used to help keep a patient alive only long enough to receive a donor heart. Now, doctors are using LVADs instead of donor hearts.

By Maureen McFadden WNDU.com

There's a shortage of donor hearts available. Right now, more than 3,000 people are waiting for a heart transplant, but only 2,200 will receive one. That leaves hundreds of people out of options and out of time.

However, heart pumps, once only used to keep patients alive long enough to get a donor heart, are now replacing hearts.

Cardiologist Maria Mountis' life is dedicated to helping hearts at the Cleveland Clinic, and also at home.

"He had a device put in because he was too sick to wait any longer for a transplant," said Dr. Mountis.

Doctor Mountis' dad suffered from heart failure. Since then, she's dedicated her life to helping others survive. She's experienced the evolution of treatment.

Dr. Mountis said, "You can really see a difference - less than a pound and close to four pounds with this particular device.”

LVADs, or left ventricular assist devices, were once only used to keep a patient alive long enough to get a donor heart. Now, this smaller LVAD can be used for patients who aren't eligible for a transplant.

If a patient were to use a new LVAD, "they would live with this device for the rest of their lives," said Dr. Mountis.

The old LVAD could only be used for a limited time. It's so big, most women and children couldn't carry the weight. A new study in the New England Journal of Nedicine reports a lower risk of stroke and clotting with the smaller device.

A “heart mate 2” is keeping Sylvia Coleman alive and walking today. Just a few years ago, she could barely stand up.

"I couldn't walk more than 10 feet. I felt like I had a ton on my chest,” said Coleman.

Four weeks after getting a new LVAD, Sylvia was trekking around the neighborhood. Four months after that, she was traveling around the world.

"She was gone for three months. We didn't have a call from her. Unbeknownst to me, she also went on a cruise while she was down there," said Dr. Mountis.

And Sylvia says the good times are just beginning.

RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: NEW IMPROVED METAL HEARTS

BACKGROUND: According to the American Heart Association (AHA), a person needs a heart transplant when the heart can no longer work and a person is faced with death. People with long term heart failure or other heart injuries or those who have suffered coronary artery disease and multiple heart attacks are candidates for heart transplants.

In 2007, there were a total of 2,210 heart transplants, and there were 2,163 heart transplants performed in 2008. According to the AHA, in the United States alone, 72.4 percent of heart transplant recipients are male, 65.5 percent are white, and about 54.2 percent are 50 years of age or older. Statistics show the one-year survival rate as of June 5, 2009 was 88 percent for males and 77 percent for females. When looking at three-year survival rates, males had about a 79 percent survival rate while females had a 77 percent survival rate. When examining survival rates for five years after a heart transplant, men still had a higher survival rate than females, coming in with a 73 percent chance of survival. Females only had about a 67 percent chance of survival.

PROCEDURE AND POST-OP: During a heart transplant, doctors take out the diseased heart and replace it with a donor heart. During the procedure, a pump circulates blood throughout the body. Additionally, the surgeon connects the new heart to all the necessary blood vessels and uses a temporary wire to control the heart beats.

Like most other heart surgeries, heart transplant patients will need a cardiac rehabilitation program. Typically, the patient will remain in the hospital for one to two weeks after surgery for proper monitoring and checking of the new heart. Some risks include rejection of the donor heart, clogging of the arteries, bone loss, infection, and ulcers.

LVADs: Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs), were once used to help keep a patient alive only long enough to receive a donor heart. Now, doctors are using LVADs instead of donor hearts. The AHA describes LVADs to be battery-operated, mechanical pumps that are surgically implanted. Furthermore, they maintain the heart pumping that the heart cannot do on its own. LVADs work through a tube that pulls blood located in the left ventricle into a pump. Next, the pump sends blood to the aorta. Since LVADs are portable, they are used for weeks or even months on end. LVADs allow patients to continue on with daily activities.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Cleveland Clinic Heart Institute
Cleveland, OH
(800) 659-7822

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Join Fresh Air Fund Racers at NYC Marathon Nov 7th

On November 7th, the Fresh Air Fund-Racers will take to the streets at the NYC Marathon! Over the past four years as a NY Road Runners charity partner for the NYC Half-Marathon, 325 Fund-Racers have raised close to $400,000 for The Fresh Air Fund! Now The Fresh Air Fund is looking for runners and sponsors to join the Fresh Air Fund Racers Team for the NYC Marathon on November 7th

One of my favorite charities, The Fresh Air Fund, makes it possible for boys and girls, six to 12 years old, who reside in low-income communities in New York City to enjoy the experience of spending two weeks of life outside the city each summer. The New York City Half-Marathon has been a major fundraiser for the Fresh Air Fund and here is another great way to participate in the New York City Marathon, NYC's premier race, while helping fresh air fund children. For more info and to enter: http://freshair.org/racers

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

A Faith Journey Towards the Gift of Life

Click image for larger view
As a volunteer for Trillium Gift of Life in Ontario I'm pleased to post this announcement.

Don't miss this event on the theme "A Faith Journey Towards the Gift of Life". Please join us at the Heintzman House in Thornhill, Ontario on September 28th at 7pm to educate yourself on how faith informs your decision to be an organ and tissue donor.

Hospice Thornhill, in partnership with Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN), invites you to attend our multi faith discussion. The question that will be explored, "Is Faith Holding You Back From Organ & Tissue Donation?," recognizes the importance of religious beliefs in making the decision to donate organs and tissue.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Growing lungs in the lab

Web Produced by: Amanda Nembhard wptv.com

Liesbeth Stoeffler barely survived the six false alarms with her failing lungs before doctors found healthy lungs for her transplant.

What if instead of waiting lists, scientists could grow new lungs in the lab?
"Ultimately it would be great if we were able to completely bioengineer a lung for transplants," says Andrew Price of the University of Minnesota. University of Minnesota scientists took the first step in doing just that. Out of stem cells, they created tiny mouse lungs that breathe in and out.

Scientists took a mouse lung -- stripped away all of the cells -- then injected special adult stem cells into the framework. They're called induced pluripotent stem cells. They can be taken from anybody -- usually from the skin -- and re-programmed.

The goal: One day use lungs of a deceased person, add cells from the skin of a transplant patient and grow designer lungs.

"Because you'd be using stem cells from the patient in rebuilding the organ, this organ would now not be recognized as foreign by the patient's immune system, and therefore, not be rejected."

Every year, 400-thousand people in the U.S. die of lung diseases. Only one-thousand of the nearly four-thousand patients on the waiting list receive a lung transplant.

Science getting closer to growing the organs needed to fill the donation demand. Scientists say while growing fully-formed human lungs is many years away, creating partial lungs, or one lobe, could happen sooner. A person doesn't need all of their lung tissue to survive. Two years ago, University of Minnesota scientists used the same technique to create a beating mouse heart.

BACKGROUND:
Lung transplantation is surgery to replace one or both diseased lungs with a healthy lung or lungs from a donor. One of the major challenges with lung transplantation is the lack of donors. There are about 4,000 people on the waiting list, yet only 1,000 of those patients will receive lungs for transplant. Rejection is another challenge when it comes to lung transplants. "There's no attempt made, for the most part, to match the donor lung to the recipient because there are so few donor organs available, so it's a huge problem," Angela Panoskaltsis-Mortari, Ph.D., a scientist at the University of Minnesota, told Ivanhoe.

GROWING NEW LUNGS:
Scientists used a process called whole organ decellularization to remove cells from the lungs of dead adult mice and implant healthy stem cells derived from unborn mice into the decellularized matrix -- the natural framework of the lungs. After a week in an incubator, the infused cells attached themselves to the matrix while breathing with the aid of a ventilator. "Even after prolonged ventilation, two to three weeks, the matrix maintained its entire geometry and was in tact. We fully expected that after all this we'd just have an empty balloon, but that's not what happened. Everything was maintained, exactly as it would be in a normal lung," Panoskaltsis-Mortari told Ivanhoe.

Scientists hope they will eventually be able to use this process to "grow" new lungs for patients in the lab. One possibility may involve removing lungs from a deceased person, decellularizing them, seeding the remaining framework with patient-derived stem cells to reproduce and develop into lung cells, and then transplanting the new lungs into people with diseased lungs to give them a new life. "I believe that even if they don't make entire lungs, I believe that they will be able to make portions of lungs or at least enough in order to help the patient get by," Panoskaltsis-Mortari told Ivanhoe.

Lung transplantation is usually the only option for patients with irreversible structural lung damage caused by cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases such as emphysema, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, primary pulmonary arterial hypertension and cystic fibrosis.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Nick Hanson, Media Relations
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
(612) 624-2449
Hans2853@umn.edu

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Restaurateur, football great dies in hospital

ctvottawa.ca

Val Belcher, 57, passed away while waiting for a heart transplant, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010.

Family and friends are mourning the death of longtime Ottawa business leader and football great Val Belcher who passed away while waiting for a heart transplant in hospital.

Belcher, 57, died Sunday morning at the Ottawa Heart Institute.

He was named a CFL all-star three times in the 1980s. He played for the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Belcher also founded the Lone Star Texas Grill and Big Daddy's. Two years ago, he opened the Big Easy restaurant on Preston Street.

Belcher retired from the restaurant business in August. He leaves behind his partner and three children.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Police officer has liver transplant after suffering heat exhaustion

BY STEVE LIEBERMAN LoHud.com

A Ramapo, New York police officer needed a liver transplant after suffering heat exhaustion while trying out for the county's emergency response team.

Richard Dube, 39, described by colleagues as a weightlifter in excellent physical shape, suffered liver damage as a result of his body temperature reaching 108F degrees on Sept. 2, authorities said.

Dube nearly died, authorities said. He was iced down at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern to bring down his body temperature, among other emergency procedures.

Dube, whose wife is expecting their first child, was taken two days later to Westchester Medical Center when his liver showed signs of failure, authorities said.

He was among eight police officers trying out for the Rescue Entry and Counter Terrorism Team, an emergency response team of police officers from most of the county's police departments, authorities said.

He became disoriented and ill after completing a 2-mile run, including stops for push-ups, leg lifts, a firemen's carry of a dummy, and calisthenics. He ran with Sheriff's Department Lt. Andrew Esposito, a unit supervisor, and other unit members.

A paramedic examined Dube and the other candidates twice during the run. All candidates were accompanied by a supervisor and unit members and had a medical examination and waiver from a doctor before taking part, authorities said.

Esposito said the temperatures were in the high 80s into the low 90s and they ran through the woods at the Rockland Fire Training Center. Dube and other recruits wore helmet and duty belts.

"It was rigorous physical fitness," Esposito said. "I don't know if I observed him drinking water. This was tragic. We're all upset. This is not what you want to see happen."

Ramapo Police PBA President Dennis Procter said Dube was recovering at Westchester Medical Center after surgery, but may need additional surgery. A liver transplant is a high-risk surgery, he said

Procter said Dube recognized his wife, patting her pregnant belly, and his parents, squeezing their hands.

The Ramapo PBA and other police officers has been raising money and making contribution for his parents to stay in Rockland. They are from Massachusetts.

Procter said he was not at the team tryouts and knows some officers and others might second-guess holding them in the hot weather. He said he couldn't pass judgment on what occurred.

He said Dube stands 6-feet-8-inches tall and weighed 265 pounds. He was in "phenomenal shape." He lifted weights and played basketball for the NYPD and Ramapo police teams.

"I don't blame the drills or how it was handled," Procter said. "There's no rhyme or reason to why this happened. We as cops got to train in all kinds of conditions and face different circumstances in hot, cold, wet, dry weather."

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Transplants in Ontario Year-to-Date

Here are the total transplants performed in the Province of Ontario this year to date followed by waiting list totals, as posted on the Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN) web site. Check this site often as figures are updated daily.

At the Trillium site you will find more statistics and you can also compare this year's transplants to the 10-year history and get an idea of the progress that's being made in increasing the rate of organ donation. For example, the lung transplant team at Toronto General Hospital performed 104 lung transplants in 2009, setting a new record for lung transplants at TGH in a single year.

Liver - From Deceased Donors 126
Liver - From Living Donors 31
Heart - 47
Kidney - From Deceased Donors 214
Kidney - From Living Donors 143
Lung 58
Heart - Lung 1
Pancreas 11
Small Bowel 0
Kidney - Pancreas 15
TOTAL TRANSPLANTS PERFORMED 646

WAITING LIST YEAR-TO-DATE
Liver 240
Heart 63
Kidney 1093
Lung 65
Heart Lung 1
Pancreas 19
Small Bowel 3
Kidney Pancreas 45

TOTAL ON WAITING LIST 1528

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be a donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant.

Daughter donates kidney to save father's life

Abby Vara, 24, donated one of her kidneys to her dad Erampamoothy Varaprasatham, 64, on Father's Day last year. The father-daughter team are now spreading the message about organ donation.
Photograph by: Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen
Abby Vara's decision to donate a kidney to her father saved his life

By Chelsey Burnside The Ottawa Citizen

FUNDRAISING WALK
Abby Vara is this year's ambassador of Give the Gift of Life Walk, which took place on Sept. 12, 10 a.m., at Andrew Haydon Park. The walk, held by the Kidney Foundation of Canada, raises funds for research for the prevention of kidney disease. Visit http://www.kidney.on.ca for more details.

On Father's Day 2009, Abby Vara saved her dad's life.

Though her five-foot-one frame could never have carried him out of a burning building, and the closest thing to a weapon involved was a surgical scalpel, Abby's decision to donate one of her kidneys to her father was nothing short of heroic.

"He didn't have a choice in the matter," says Abby, 24. "People would always ask me, 'Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure?' After awhile they got sick of asking, because I would always say 'Absolutely.' I didn't have a doubt in my mind."

Her father Erampamoothy Varaprasatham, known to friends and family as "Vara," has been affected by a rare, yet-to-be-diagnosed neurological disorder since 1993. His health has steadily deteriorated, a downward spiral of strokes, angina, epilepsy, gout, diabetes, and finally kidney failure -- all because of a virus that managed to outsmart medical professionals.

"I lost my speech, I lost my memories," says Varaprasatham, who practised medicine until his onset of ailments. "They sent me home to die."

But no one, especially the close-knit Sri Lankan family of five, was ready to sit back and watch him surrender to the disease. Offers began flooding in from friends, family and good samaritans willing to donate their organs in order to help Varaprasatham, who was on a four-year waiting list for a deceased donor kidney while struggling through debilitating hemodialysis treatments.

"It was really difficult to watch him suffer from kidney failure," says Abby, her usual bubbly voice deadpan. "You could see the toxins building up in his body. His skin colour was so dark that he was almost blue. It was a very disturbing thing to see."

Being the youngest of three daughters, the Algonquin College broadcast student decided to be tested to see if there was a chance she could be the one to give him one of her kidneys. She was thrilled to hear they were a perfect match.

"A lot of our family members were tested, but I was secretly hoping it was me," says Abby, who was 20 at the time she made the decision to undergo the surgery.

"We've seen my dad on his deathbed more times than I can count on my hands. I don't remember my dad healthy. It became a way of life for my family, and it definitely brought us a lot closer together."

After almost three years of cyclic tests, checkups, treatments and enough rough patches to make even the most optimistic of families give up hope, Abby got the call from specialists at the Riverside Campus of The Ottawa Hospital that her father's health was finally stable enough for the transplant.

"The kidney worked right away," says Abby. "Even on life support, my dad started to look healthier."

Now well past the first anniversary of the surgery, the Varaprasathams are doing better than ever. Abby's father's quality of life has improved tenfold from the years he was confined to a wheelchair, having regained his kidney function, speech and mobility from Abby's donation. The father and daughter are now working to spread their story, and encourage young people to look into donating kidneys to those affected by kidney disease.

"The biggest thing about kidney disease is that it's relatively silent until you need treatment," says Dr. Todd Fairhead, a transplantation specialist for the Ottawa Hospital.

"By leading a healthy lifestyle, you can prevent kidney disease. The best things people can do is have regular follow-ups with a family physician and restrict their salt intake."

Between 65 and 80 kidney transplants are undertaken in Ottawa each year, and there is a 99 per cent or greater patient survival rate after the surgery. Donors are able to function post-operation when their remaining kidney grows to compensate for its missing mate.

"Nowadays, we're expecting at least 10 years of kidney survival rate in the recipient when we do a transplant," says Fairhead.

As the newly-appointed ambassador of this year's Give the Gift of Life Walk on Sunday, Sept. 12, Abby hopes to promote kidney health and spread the word that kidney transplants aren't as scary as people think. While family and friends supported her decision to donate an organ at such a young age, reading comments on articles written on her story always reminds her that there are still many people who are uninformed about the surgery.

"There was a lot of backlash from people who didn't think a young person should have to do this," she says. "But a life is a life. Any human is worth it. I want to ask them, 'Let's turn the tables and put you on the hotspot. Wouldn't you have done the same as me?'"

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Organ recipient's heartwarming letter exchange with donor family

Organ donors are encouraged to write an anonymous letter to their donor family which is forwarded by their local organ procurement agency. Many, such as I, do not receive a response but this Canadian woman from Ontario, Brianne (Bree) Cordick, did eventually hear back and she has graciously provided both her original letter following her lung transplant in August, 2009 and her reply to her donor family's response that she recently received. These inspirational letters are two of the most powerful expressions of thanks and gratitude to a donor family I have ever read.

Congratulations to Bree on the one-year anniversary of her "gift of life" and we thank her for sharing these letters. Hopefully they will offer inspiration and guidance to others.

Thurs, Oct. 15, 2009
To my donor and their family,
I don’t know who you are, or where you’re from, or how it all happened, but I do know this: whoever you are and whoever you were, you are a hero and you saved my life. To you – the family – by choosing to honor your loved ones wishes; you enabled me to have a life that I never dreamed possible. Because of all of you, I am breathing with two beautiful, perfectly healthy lungs. Because of you, I lived to see my 24th birthday.

Early in the hours of August 7, 2009, I received the much - anticipated ‘call’. After waiting 15 long months on the transplant list, I was beginning to think that it just wasn’t meant to be and that I would be that 1 statistic who would die waiting. I was 23 years old and that was my life. I had a condition called Bronchiectasis, which is the build-up of scar tissue in your lungs, the stretching of your airways, and the destruction of the tiny hair cells that are responsible for removing dust and debris. As a result, the elasticity of the lungs is destroyed and your lung function drops drastically (a week before my transplant my function was 21% out of a predicted value of 100%). Additionally, I was constantly ill with life-threatening lung infections and was on about 5 inhaled and oral antibiotics at a time. With that was the issue of fluid build-up in my lungs. My lungs were so diseased that I didn’t need a stethoscope to hear them; all I had to do was breathe ‘normally’ and the room would fill with the sounds of crackles, wheezes, pops, and other bizarre sounds. My friends joked that I sounded like a rainforest.

I was on oxygen 24/7, and simple tasks like putting socks on, showering, putting shoes on, getting in an out of the car left me gasping. Sometimes, even shifting positions while sitting on the couch left me so out of breath I felt like I would pass out. Next to the gasping was the chronic coughing. I coughed so much that people could identify me simply by hearing it. I couldn’t even laugh because I would be thrown into a fit of coughing and would be unable to catch my breath. As a result, I simply could not fathom a life with perfectly healthy lungs – lungs that didn’t debilitate me in each and every corner of my life. To take a deep breath in was something I had never even had the joy of experiencing...until now.

I don’t know if ‘thank-you’ can truly encompass just how grateful I am for this gift called life. To be honest, I don’t know if I will ever truly be able to wrap my head around this fact: what have I done to be so lucky and so blessed to receive such a precious gift? How can I celebrate each and every day knowing that with every breath I take, there is a wonderful family out there grieving, and I am benefiting from their loss? If there is one, (out of many) things I want you to know, it’s that with every breath I take, I say ‘thank-you’; with every new experience I am fortunate enough to be part of, I say ‘thank-you’. Every morning I wake up, I say ‘thank-you’. Every deep breath I take, I relish. I cannot describe to you the elation I feel when I feel these beautiful creatures expand in my back and inflate all the way to the bottom of my ribcage. To normal people they probably don’t notice something like this, but it makes me stop every time it happens, and I find myself doing it again, and again, and again, just because I can, because it feels good, because once upon a time, I couldn’t. Because taking that breath means ‘life’, and it’s the reminder that due to a complete strangers generosity when their journey on this Earth was completed, they had the forethought to consent to donate and to let someone else benefit from something they enjoyed just as much.

How can I possibly say ‘thank-you’ for something like that? 8 letters isn’t long enough. 8 letters isn’t enough to grab onto all the emotion that I’m feeling as I write this. It isn’t enough to encapsulate the emotions I experience day to day when my donor crosses my mind.

There is much that I want to do to make the most of this amazing experience. I had to take a leave of my university studies when I got listed, and am hoping to resume them in the winter and complete my degree next fall. I want to travel to destinations far and wide. Most exciting of all is that I want to partake in the 2011 World Transplant Games in Sweden in 2011!! It isn’t so much the big things that are most frequently showing up on my list, but the small. I walk daily – for hours on end sometimes – just because I can and because it is so effortless. I look forward to when I can dance again as well. I am looking forward to going to beach with friends and celebrating the small things that took every ounce of effort I had just 2 months ago. But I have to say that next to loving every breath I am fortunate enough to take, laughter is right up there as well. I love laughing now. Gone are the days of the ‘smile and nod’ technique when something funny happened, because if I let myself laugh out loud I would only be rewarded with a huge, disgusting coughing fit. Now – even though no sound comes out yet – I can laugh, and laugh to my hearts content and it feels wonderful. I talk louder, I yell louder (ha ha), and I eat faster because I can breathe and eat at the same time now!! I am also enjoying new things that I never liked before, like seafood. I couldn’t stand the smell or even the thought of consuming a sea creature prior to transplant, but now I fear if I ever go swimming in the ocean, I may just eat something right off the ocean floor.

It is hard for me to think of what to write next, what else to elaborate on because there is so much and yet not enough. While my progress has been wonderful and I’ve been fortunate enough to have no complications, I know that out there you are grieving. If there is one thing I would like you to know, it’s that in all of this, I have not forgotten you, the family. I have lost friends both pre and post transplant, and I also lost one of my best friends in high school, who ended up being an organ donor herself. She alone saved 11 people, so in one small aspect I understand the organ donor card on both sides, being the friend of a donor and now, a recipient. Throughout it all, one thing remains the same: you do not forget.

I guess I should end this letter. I hope that in the process of reading this I have neither hurt nor offended you in any manner. That is not and never was my intent. I would love to hear back from you, but I completely understand if you choose not to respond. Please know you are in my thoughts and prayers daily, even though that most likely doesn’t make your loss any easier. I wish you all the best, and hope that each memory you have of your precious loved one brings a shine to your eyes, laughter to your lips, and a smile big enough to light up the room.

To my donor: I don’t know who you are, or what happened, but I do know this: you are a rock star, and a hero to me. I hope that wherever you are in your after life, that you landed on the shiniest star and got the best seat in the House.

Much Love to You, B.

But I stayed up with you all night
And I know how to save a life - The Fray

NEXT POST - Letter 2

Lung recipient's response to letter from donor family

This is the 2nd letter written by lung recipient Bree Cordick to her donor family. See previous post for her 1st letter.

Friday, August 6, 2010
Much like a child carries around and protects their favorite stuffed animal, I have done the same with your letter. Ever since receiving it on August 3rd, it has not left my sight or my hands. If I leave the house, it comes with me. If I go to bed, it sleeps on my dresser. And anyone who knows me, has read it and been brought to tears by the things you so kindly shared with me.

A year ago today I can recall exactly what I did: I baked 2 loaves of bread, one being cheese and onion. I had caught up on phone calls and emails and was mentally making sure everything at home would be okay. I knew I was dying. I couldn’t brush my teeth and breathe at the same time without having to lean over the counter and rest to take a breath. Using 5L of oxygen didn’t matter – I simply couldn’t do it anymore. I was simply exhausted in every which way imaginable, and the sheer physical pain of feeling your lungs shrivelling up and dying within you was unfathomable.

I was just 23 years old, and this was my life.

At 12:45am on August 7th, the phone rang, saying that a pair of lungs had become available for me. We rushed to Toronto only to end up waiting 18 hours until surgery began. In that time we sat and waited in a freezing cold ICU room while everyone around me ate Tim Horton’s and I could only feast on ice chips. The hours dragged on, but I knew everything would work out. And it did, and continues to do so, because of your husband and father and your selfless act of honoring his wishes to donate his organs.

One year later things are very different. I am healthy, I am pink, and I am breathing the way a normal 24 year old girl should. This morning I woke up bright and early and took one of our dogs for an hour and a half walk with my sister. Then I made a cup of tea and lounged on the couch with the other dog and watched Shark Week. My how things have changed.

But the thought that somewhere out there your family continues to grieve is enough to bring me to tears. You will never know what your donation has done for my family and I. I cannot put into words how it feels to take a deep breath in and feel it resonating at the bottom of my lungs. Seeing my chest rise and fall the way it should, instead of having it never move and breathing with my stomach as I used to never seize to amaze me. It is a sensation that will never grow old.

In two weeks, I will turn 25.

Your letter gave me so much information that I will cherish always. I am excited to compete in the World Transplant Games in Sweden 2011, and ironically enough (even before I received your letter) my sport/event of choice was cycling. I’ve always loved it, and just recently got back into it. If cycling doesn’t work out I will most likely compete in one of the walking events. I love to walk, and I can do so for hours on end without any destination in mind, just so long as I can be moving and enjoying nature around me.

The day I received your letter I was up North with my dad, and he was showing me the town he had grown up in. We were at the dam he used to swim in when I suddenly burst out, “we could have gone fishing!” which is bizarre, seeing as I’ve never expressed any interest in ever doing so, and will be the first to admit that the thought of catching let alone touching a fish is enough to make me scream and gag all over the place. But in that moment, I was overtaken with the urge to go fishing, and then I got your letter in the mail that night and read that fishing was one of your beloved’s passion. Needless to say, now I must go fishing!

This fall will see me finishing up my anthropology degree. Ideally, I would love to work in a hospital dealing with patients waiting for transplant. I just need to be doing something that gives back and helps others, in any way shape or form. It has become a passion of mine and I do not mind being a voice and face for transplant.

In my spare time I love to write, and I have a blog that chronicles my transplant journey from the moment I found out I needed one up until now. I will continue to write it for as long as blogs are around! I also love to read – I think I love to read almost as much as I love to breathe – and, I never leave the house without a book in my purse. Genre of choice has to be historical fiction, and my favorite series of all time is Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. The best thing in the world to do on a rainy weekend is to wear your favorite pair of sweatpants, and a sweater, with an endless supply of tea, curled up with an amazing book that you can get lost in. I love losing all sense of time and being enamoured by an author’s ability to make all time and space fail to exist around me. Next to this, is reading out on the deck on a warm summer’s night, with the stars above to guide your eyes. That is my favorite passtime.

As for projects, my dad and I are embarking on a genealogy journey, tracing all sides of the family. Needless to say, it’s a frustrating and rewarding process, and a fascinating one at that. I love learning about where I came from, and how we got here, and when we did. I feel that it is imperative to know your roots.

Summer is my favorite season, with fall coming in second place. I love sleeping with my window open on a cool summer night, with the blind all the way, so that when the sun rises in the morning to wake up the world, I can be witness to it time and time again. As for fall, I love the colors, and the smell of the leaves, and the food. Being a baker and a cook, it’s so exciting to make homemade soups to warm everyone up on a fall day. And I admit – almost ashamed to – that I revealed to my mother the other day that I was excited for Thanksgiving, even though it’s 2 months away, ha ha. I can’t explain why exactly I am excited for Thanksgiving so soon, but I just love getting together with family and seeing how everyone is doing and where they are at in their lives. I make a point to never lose touch with anyone, and to always let them know that I am thinking of them.

Last winter I seriously thought of cross-country skiing, but being on the small side, I had horrible visions of myself falling down and breaking my legs and ending up shorter than I am. But now that I know that your beloved father and husband had a passion for cross-country skiing, I will summon up the courage and give it a go. Due to the fact that they had to break my sternum for the transplant, contact sports are forever out of the question, so cross-country skiing will be a nice alternative I think.

As for other things I am passionate about: I love tea (especially black teas), baking, cooking, macaroni and cheese, cheese by itself, chocolate, apples, pancakes, bacon, frequenting farmers markets, running yellow lights, mauling my poor cat, marvelling at the blessings life has given me, being entirely too philosophical at times, making friends, laughing, being outdoors playing piano, and sweatpants. I love hot temperatures (this 35C/94F plus weather has been heaven!) thunderstorms, and prefer to have windows open instead of having air conditioning on. I love history in all its forms. I love home renovation shows and would love to live in an old stone house. I am excited to travel, and would love to visit the eastern provinces here in Canada. I feel especially drawn to Newfoundland. I have been to Nova Scotia and loved it to bits, but I feel like Newfoundland is calling me for some reason. I think the scenery and the incredible view of the ocean will be spectacular, and my friends and I have spoken of taking a train out there at some point. I hope it comes to fruition.

I am not an alcohol drinker by nature, but tomorrow I will try my first ever drink of scotch in honor of my amazing donor. I’ve been warned it packs a punch, so if I don’t end up flat on the floor from its impact, you will continue to receive letters from me and know that I fared ok in its aftermath.

Saturday, August 7, 2010
It has been one year since my transplant took place. At 7:20pm I was wheeled into the OR and my new life officially began. Today I celebrated with my family, and did my first ever shot of scotch with my parents in honor of my donor, your husband and father. I knew it would burn but no one ever thought to warn me that it tasted like leather. My dad then made a toast to your family and thanked you for the gift that you so selflessly gave to me one year ago. We acknowledged the pain and grief you must still be feeling, and I said a silent prayer that you find release from it.

I guess I have blabbed on for long enough and should end this letter. Again, I would love to hear back from you. I hope this letter can again offer you some comfort, and I hope that the sadness in your heart is giving way to hope. Not a day goes by when I don’t think of your wonderful family, and I give thanks and say a prayer for you every day that goes by.

With love and hugs and resonating breath,
Your (grateful) ‘third child’,

P.S. Enclosed in this letter is my favorite recipe to bake: Scottish Scones. A buttery scone full of cinnamon-y goodness, I hope you love this recipe as much as my family and I do! Perfect for a cold fall day and Christmas season – and yes, I realize it is far too early to be thinking of those things just yet!!

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