Latest news with #livingdonor
Globe and Mail
06-07-2025
- Health
- Globe and Mail
This extraordinary gift from a living organ donor has changed my life
First Person is a daily personal piece submitted by readers. Have a story to tell? See our guidelines at On May 7, 2024, I found the One. Or rather, the One found me. I'm not talking about a soulmate to ride off into the sunset with, I'm talking about an organ donor. That was the day I was told that a match had been found, and I was going to receive my life-saving liver transplant. For more than 12 years I had been living with a rare liver disease and for the past 11 months had been urgently searching for a living donor – some remarkable person willing to give me part of their liver so that I could survive. The need for organs vastly exceeds the supply. Despite being on the transplant waitlist, my blood type and the nature of my disease meant that I was going to die on that list. My only hope was to find a match among the living. I wrote about my desperate situation in The Globe and Mail and I explained that there were no matches within my family or friends, so I had to go public. The vulnerability of asking strangers for an organ felt unbearable – but it was a choice between life or death. My liver is turning to stone. I need a living donor, and soon We launched my campaign in November, 2023, on social media hoping it would be widely shared, and it was. My donor, Trisha, who lives in the United States, saw my appeal after it was shared by someone she went to high school with 20 years ago. She reached out to say that she couldn't stop thinking about my story, and in mid-March told me she had applied to be my donor. To say I was skeptical is +an understatement. My first thought was: I need a donor here, in Canada. But she was my first real hope and I didn't want to ask further questions. Here was this person with the same blood type and a willing spirit. We messaged a bit, and she told me she was coming to Toronto to undergo the next phase of testing. I was hesitant when she asked if I wanted to meet her when she was here. What if the testing ruled her out? What if she ultimately changed her mind? I didn't want to get attached. By April, my health had been rapidly declining for months and I was experiencing horrifying physical symptoms that would be the envy of nightmares, like spontaneous nosebleeds, jaundice and sever brain fog. I spent an entire week in the hospital's transplant unit trying to get stabilized – the same week she was also there getting the final tests. She asked if I wanted updates, and I did – I desperately did – but I couldn't bring myself to tell her that I was several floors up from her. I couldn't put that kind of pressure on her shoulders. If the doctors ruled her out as my donor, I didn't want her feeling like she had failed me when I was at a critical juncture. On her last night in Toronto, she told me all the tests went well, and it looked very promising that we would get the green light for transplant. We just had to wait for the transplant team to meet and discuss my case the following week. She again asked if I wanted to meet early the following day before her flight home. At that moment I realized even if she wasn't the One, I had to meet her because she had come farther for me than anyone else. I told her things had gotten worse and I was in the hospital. When she came to my room the next morning, I was so nervous as I sat on the edge of the bed waiting. I peeked outside my room and saw her coming around the corner. Without hesitation, I rushed up and threw my arms around her. I held her so tightly, afraid that if I let go, she might evaporate into mist, but she didn't. She was real. Flesh and blood and liver. In mid-June of last year, Trisha performed the miracle I needed: She brought me back to life. A life that is filled with gratitude, purpose and a perfect organ. Just past the one-year mark, it will never be lost on me how fortunate I am to have received this extraordinary gift. I asked her why she did this for a stranger, and she said, 'because someone needed to do it' and so she courageously did. This new liver is my most treasured possession and has let me resume teaching and researching in the art history department at the University of Toronto, spending time with the people I love, and advocating for organ donation awareness and education, especially living donation. During the waiting process, I began to refer to my future donor as my 'living donor angel.' Trisha later told me that while she now lives in the northwest, she was born and raised in Los Angeles. My living donor angel was literally from the City of Angels. I am in awe of the capacity of human kindness, and the synchronicities of the universe. Stephanie Azzarello lives in Toronto.
CBC
11-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Hamilton hospital appeals for living donors as more than 100 people await life-saving kidney transplants
It's been 51 years since St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton carried out its first living donor kidney transplant. Since then, the hospital's living kidney donor program has grown into one that's "large and flourishing," according to the program's medical lead. But Dr. Seychelle Yohanna said while the program remains "very dedicated to helping patients get living donor kidney transplants," increasing the number of living donors to keep up with demand has been a struggle. Yohanna said the hospital carries out between 120 to 160 transplants each year, but only about 30 per cent of the kidneys are from living donors. "So, clearly there are not enough organs to meet the demand, not enough supply for demand," Yohanna told CBC Hamilton. "As the program and as the province we're working tirelessly to increase access to kidney transplant." Why a living kidney donor is 'best' A living donor kidney transplant "is the best treatment for patients with kidney failure," Yohanna said, adding that those patients can gain several additional life years. "The kidneys themselves also tend to last longer. If you're able to find a living kidney donor, then you can avoid the number of years on dialysis while waiting for a deceased donor transplant," she said. Yohanna said a living donor transplant works approximately 20 years on average, whereas the deceased donor transplant works anywhere from 10 to 15 years. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the number of people in Canada with end-stage kidney disease continues to rise. There are about 120 people on St. Joseph's kidney donor program's waitlist, Yohanna said, but nationally in Canada, there are approximately 3,000 people who are waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant. In 2022, 117 people in Canada died while waiting for a kidney transplant, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Hamilton model for quicker donor assessment adopted by others Yohanna said in Canada and across the globe, there's been "moderate success" in efforts to increase the number of living donors. "Ontario is actually one of the top provinces in Canada in terms of deceased donations and we've done so well at increasing our deceased donor numbers, even though there is still room to improve," she said. "But living donation has been a little bit stagnated over the past years or so, and we're very committed to helping patients find living donors and to promoting living donation, but as a society, as a community, we haven't really been able to move the mark as much as we'd like." To address this, the hospital has taken steps to significantly reduce the time it takes to screen potential donors. In 2019, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton developed Canada's first-ever one-day assessment clinic for potential kidney donors, a welcome alternative to the historically lengthy and often inconvenient assessment process. Yohanna said this approach has also been adopted by other transplant centres, with three out of six adult kidney transplant centres in Ontario now offering this shortened assessment process. The St. Joe's team helped The Ottawa Hospital set up their own-day assessment clinic in 2021 and London Health Sciences Centre in 2024. Hamilton family 'praying that a donor will be found' Hamilton resident Charlene DaSilva knows the heartbreaking toll of Alport syndrome — a rare genetic condition that causes progressive kidney failure. She's already lost her father at just 58, and her nephew at 37, to this disease. Now, two more family members urgently need kidney transplants — including another 19-year-old nephew who is already on dialysis. One of DaSilva's family members is being cared for by St Joseph's Healthcare, while the other is being cared for by the London Health Sciences Centre. "The fear is constant. I just keep praying that a donor will be found so they don't face the same outcome." DaSilva is sharing her story to raise awareness and ask a question: "If you could save a life by sharing your spare kidney — would you? "Most people are born with two kidneys but only need one to live a full, healthy life. Living kidney donation is one of the greatest gifts you can give — the gift of life," she said. DaSilva said donating a kidney could help someone break free from the exhausting cycle of dialysis, including "hours each week hooked up to machines, constant fatigue, nausea, and depression." Additionally she said she patients face serious risks like high blood pressure and infections, as well as lost time with family and friends "Organ donation isn't for everyone — but if you've ever thought about it, now is the time," DaSilva said. "You could be the miracle someone has been waiting for." Having done it once and realized, you know, I came out OK at the other end, it's a very good experience. - Ricardo Ramirez, Guelph, Ont., resident and organ donor Guelph, Ont., resident Ricardo Ramirez, 65, decided to become a donor after learning that his brother-in-law was having kidney problems due to prolonged use of medications. "My wife and I talked about that and it was no-brainer. It was like we got to try. How could you not try?" Ramirez told CBC Hamilton. Experience brought these 2 men 'closer' Ramirez's wife as well as his sister-in-law also did the screening. While both were incompatible candidates, Ramirez said he was a perfect match. The transplant was done at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton in February 2023. "That will be ingrained in my head for the rest of my life — that moment of 'Oh dear, this is going to happen,'" he said. "It was overwhelming. We have since become closer. For the first year after the surgery, he would send me all the data — his numbers and my numbers — of how we were each recovering. "Every time I talk to him he reminds me of, you know, this is called the gift of life. This is giving him such a push [but] it's also very rewarding from the donor perspective." Ramirez said he would encourage people to consider donating a kidney if they have a relative or a friend in need of a transplant, adding that he would do it again if he could donate a second time. "I must tell you that closer to the actual transplant date I was so nervous that something would happen and I would not be able to be a donor 'cause then I realized my brother-in-law was back to square one. So, it's quite an emotional journey you go through," Ramirez said. "But I mean, in retrospect … having done it once and realized, you know, I came out OK at the other end, it's a very good experience. "I advise other people who are in the early parts of this journey, especially people on dialysis that are scared to ask a spouse or a relative, I say to them, realize that they won't let that person do [surgery] unless they pass this test. And this is one of the most common procedures done globally with a success rate of 99 per cent, so why not?," added Ramirez.
CBC
11-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Montreal family searching for living organ donor for 2-year-old daughter
Carmella is living with a rare disease that severely affects her kidney function. She'll soon need a kidney transplant, ideally from a living donor so it can serve her longer. Her family says the search is on.
