EDMONTON – A team of experts at the University of Alberta Hospital and Mazankowski Heart Institute has made history by completing a record 31 organ transplants in just 10 days.
Twelve kidney, eight liver, three lung, two heart, one pancreas and five islet cell transplants were performed between Sept. 29 and Oct. 8. The previous record was 22 transplants in 10 days.
Vernen Foreman was one the patients. After contracting Hepatitis C when he was young and battling liver failure for years, Foreman was placed on the waiting list for a new liver.
“I was tired all the time and the quality of my life had pretty well left me,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of energy left to do anything that was enjoyable.”
That was, until one fateful Saturday afternoon, when Foreman received a phone call; he was to be the back-up recipient for a liver transplant planned for later that day.
“The person that was to be the recipient, unfortunately, he wasn’t a viable recipient. So they called me at 11 o’clock at night to get down right away. It happened very quickly.
“I was shocked… I had already made the decision that if I got the call I would go. So I didn’t have to think about it.”
But what Foreman does think about now is the person from whom he received his new lease on life. Since his surgery, Foreman has had the pleasure of meeting the family of the man whose liver he received.
“As a family, our three children and I made the decision that he would become an organ donor,” Sandy Walsh-Schuurman said of her husband, Ron, who was declared brain dead after suffering a massive cerebral aneurysm four years ago. He was 50 years old.
“It wasn’t a hard decision, at all, to make,” said the registered nurse. “We’ve always known and understood the importance of organ donation and Ron’s life was at an end. Nothing was going to change where we were at with Ron’s life, but being able to have a positive impact on other families was the only decision that could be made.”
Through the 31 transplants, organs were collected from three living donors and nine people who had passed away. Physicians say performing the transplants was no easy feat.
“There’s no question that there’s stress involved,” said Dr. Norman Kneteman. “We had over a dozen surgeons, and then of course the anesthesia teams, the operating room nurses, critical care teams that support them afterwards. The transplant ward was very busy bringing people in and out, so it was a real active period of time. But the outcome, in the end, means that a large number of people got a second chance at life.”
With several hundred people on the waiting list at any given time, Kneteman says transplants are a challenging area of health care.
“It’s not just a question of us basically going to administration or government for more money to do our job,” he said. “We obviously have a critical dependence on the support of the public. It’s only when we have that opportunity for donation that we can then go forward to help people on the wait list.”
That’s why, Kneteman says, it’s extremely important for people to make their loved ones known about their feelings on organ donation.
“You can imagine, it’s not an easy situation when you’ve had a sudden tragedy in the family. And if that’s the first time you’ve ever thought about donation, it’s a very big jump to make. And I think that giving people an opportunity to think about it… it does make for a better opportunity for us to help the people on the transplant wait list.”
Walsh-Schuurman says Ron was young and healthy when he died, and knowing that her husband has given others a second chance at life helps her deal with her family’s loss.
“He is still out there in other people and our wish has always been… that the people that have Ron’s organs have the ability to life a happy, joyful life.”
That’s something Foreman says he’ll do every day for the rest of his life. And now that he’s starting to get his energy back, Foreman says he’s looking forward to travelling, something he loves to do.
“It’s like a new life…I am just grateful for the gift that was given to me,” he explained. “It’s a wonderful gift and I have to make good on my end to look after it and to live happy.”
With files from Su-Ling Goh, Global News.
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