Transplant breathes new life into 23-Year-Old

UVic student's family celebrates turbulent, emotional week

Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun

November 1, 2007

It was a gloriously sunny Tuesday afternoon when Eva Markvoort was given back her life.

That's when the pager that seemed so permanently affixed to her hip in recent months finally started beeping. For Markvoort, 23, it was the pulse of a heartbeat -- a life-giving signal that represented all she and her family had been waiting and hoping for, for too many months.

By midnight, she was heading into an operating room at Vancouver Hospital to undergo a double lung transplant -- surgery that would literally breathe new life into her own failing body.

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She was one of 11 people who would receive new organs that day.

One day earlier, the University of Victoria theatre student had checked out of hospital after a gruelling seven-week stay in the adult cystic fibrosis ward at St. Paul's Hospital.

"The reason I'm in hospital and not staying at home is to take care of myself as best I can so that I am ready for when the call comes," Markvoort says from her hospital bed in a film documenting her struggle with cystic fibrosis. A portion of the film is posted on the YouTube website under the name 65_RedRoses, Markvoort's online user name.

"Because when the call comes, I'll be getting a double lung transplant at [Vancouver Hospital]," she says in the clip, her thin body shaking from a violent coughing fit, a hallmark of the disease, which attacks the lungs and digestive system.

Markvoort was just one year old when doctors diagnosed her with cystic fibrosis.

She spent much of her childhood and early adult years in and out of hospital.

More recently, she was forced to drop out of university and return home to her parent's home in New Westminster to battle the disease full-time. By the spring, her condition had deteriorated to the point where her name was placed at the top of the provincial organ transplant list to receive two new lungs.

Dr. John Yee, surgical director of the BC Lung Transplant program at VGH, said double lung transplants are common for young cystic fibrosis patients like Markvoort.

In British Columbia, the average wait for a suitable lung transplant, whether single or double, is 15.2 months, according to statistics provided by the BC Transplant Society.

There were many dark days for Markvoort and her family as they waited for news of a suitable donor -- a wait made all the worse by the knowledge that someone would have to die in order for their Markvoort to live.

"It's a very difficult place to be," said Janet Brine, Markvoort's mother.

An avid actor, Markvoort spent the agonizing waiting period working with a filmmaker friend to document her transplant experience. Brine says it is a project Markvoort hopes will bring awareness of both cystic fibrosis itself, and the need for more Canadians to register as organ donors.

Last Tuesday, Oct. 23, at noon, she was with the film crew preparing for another shoot when the beeper sounded. The deaths of two people in the province had suddenly made available several major organs for transplant including four lungs, four kidneys and two livers.

With no time to lose, Markvoort and her family arrived on the 12th floor of Vancouver General at 4:30 p.m.

"We sat around and held hands like a kind of mini-celebration of apprehension," said her father, Bill Markvoort.

By 3 a.m., Markvoort's surgery was under way, with the doctors emerging to tell her family of its success by 10 a.m.

"This last week, without a doubt, ranks up there as one of the most emotional weeks of our lives," Bill Markvoort said at a media conference Wednesday to celebrate the record-breaking number of transplant surgeries, including Markvoort's, undertaken by hospital staff at VGH within a 24-hour period.

One week later, Markvoort remains in intensive care at VGH, having suffered some significant setbacks post-surgery. But, said her father, "she's a fighter. If she gets a little traction, she'll get there."

Bill Markvoort said Eva has been able to sit up and speak with her family and friends.

"She is now just able to come into consciousness, and she tells us she loves us and we tell her we love her," he said.

Yee said lung-transplant patients have excellent recovery rates, with the addition of up to 20 more years of life.

Brine told reporters Wednesday she was particularly thankful to the organ donor.

"I would love to be able to wrap my arms around the parents, the spouse, the child or the sibling of our donor -- to be able to comfort them by telling them what their loved one has given our daughter," said Brine.

"Our daughter Eva . . . now has a chance at life," Brine said. "Doors were closing for her rapidly in the last several months. Now doors will begin to open. She has been given the gift of the breath of life and the chance to fulfil her dreams."

"What a gift," she said.

For more information on how to become an organ donor, go to British Columbia Transplant Society.

dahansen@png.canwest.com

UNPRECEDENTED TRANSPLANT SURGERY AT VGH

How five donors saved 11 lives in 24 hours

2 DECEASED DONORS SAVED 8 LIVES

Donated from the two donors were:

• 4 kidneys -- to 4 people
• 2 livers -- to 2 people
• 4 lungs -- to 2 people

8 RECIPIENTS

• 3 live donors saved 3 lives
• 1 kidney donor to 1 person
• 1 liver donor to 1 person
• 1 kidney donor to 1 person (at St. Paul's)

Copyright © 2007 The Vancouver Sun.

This article posted November 22, 2007.