Waiting for the gift of life

Brian Jonson

News Staff Reporter

Apr 17 2005

New heart - Phyllis Foster holds out the cocktail of drugs she takes to keep the transplanted heart she received 15 years ago healthy and her body from rejecting it Photo by Brian Jonson

Phyllis Foster was packing her bag for what she thought would be her last night when she got the lifesaving call.

"I was getting ready for the hospital because I knew I wasn't going to make the night," she said. "I didn't want to die at home."

She was offering a little prayer in her bedroom when the call came in telling her a donor had been found. In short order, an ambulance rushed her to Penticton airport where the air ambulance - already in the air with another patient - was diverted to take her to Vancouver for her new heart. That was 15 years ago - and her new heart is still beating strong.

Foster is one of the lucky ones. More than 400 people in B.C. - five of those in Penticton - are waiting for organs right now, states information from the B.C. Transplant Society.

But of the 2,500 people who die in B.C. each year, fewer than 25 are available to donate organs to people who need them, said Dr. Warren Cunningham, a retired doctor and Rotarian.

Cunningham is leading a push by Rotarians to get British Columbians to register for organ donation.

In the past, Rotarians have encouraged each other to sign up, said Cunningham. This year, the club has made it a goal to use its network to get as many people as possible to sign up.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that the information on the drivers' licence identifies someone as a donor, said Cunningham.

"The drivers licence is no longer any good," he said. "It does not initiate the hospitals to begin the process toward organ transplantation."

To register, people need to fill in a donor registration card and return it to the B.C. Transplant Society, or go online to the web site.

The form is scanned and stored in a secure database. In case of an accident, the form, which is a legal document, is faxed to the hospital.

Many people don't sign up because they are uncomfortable talking about organ donation and afraid of what it means, said Cunningham.

"I talk to people and they think that if I get them to sign here I'm going to haul them into a back room and steal their kidney when they're not looking," said Cunningham. "They fear it like they do a will."

Organ harvesting only takes place if the form is signed and brain death is confirmed by two impartial doctors who are not part of the transplant team, he said.

There are many reasons for filling in the form and talking over the decision with family members.

For one, it makes the decision easier for family members who are already dealing with the trauma of having a loved one die, he said.

Fewer than five per cent of families in that situation decide to let their loved ones' organs be harvested, though those who do seldom regret it, he said.

One couple he knows had two sons killed in separate car accidents. Their parents donated the organs and today 10 people are alive and more than 90 have benefited from the boys' organs and tissues, he said.

Transplants are also cost effective. Information from the transplant society says dialysis for patients with kidney disease may need up to $50,000 a year in treatment to stay alive. A kidney transplant operation costs about $20,000 and about $6,000 a year after that in anti-rejection medication.

The registration can also be used to specify if a person does not want to donate their organs and which ones, if any, they are willing to donate. Most people are willing to donate - 85 per cent according to the transplant society - but fewer than 13 per cent of people have signed on.

But the biggest reason is that organ donation gives people who would otherwise die a chance to live.

Foster was 57 when she received her transplant. Now 72, she has lived to see her grandchildren grow up and her first great-grandchild be born.

The nine months she spent waiting for a donor were hard. Besides the battery of tests she underwent to develop a profile for a possible match, she had to carry a pager everywhere she went and remain in Penticton in case the vital call came through.

Meanwhile, her health deteriorated and a pacemaker was all that kept her alive. She was called in once before her transplant, only to be told the heart was not a good one. She found herself in conflict - needing a new heart but not wanting anyone else to have to die.

"That's the only thing that bothered me is they would say is 'There's a long weekend coming up, maybe this will be it,' and I couldn't handle that," she said. "I never wished anyone to die."

Since receiving her transplant, she still thinks of the donor who gave her these extra years of life. The policy in B.C. is that donors and recipients are not told anything about each other, but Phyllis has learned that she has a heart from a young boy in Victoria.

"On my anniversary, I'm not thinking of me that day, that it's my 15th anniversary," she said. "I'm thinking of that mother that lost this youngster."

Mary Harvey - who works at the front desk of the Penticton Lakeside Resort and Casino - received a heart transplant 13 years ago. Harvey was born without one of her ventricles.

An operation in her teens converted an atrium to do the job, but eventually that wore out. By the time she was 26, her only hope for life was someone else's heart. She waited 22 months before a compatible match was found.

"It's kind of odd," she said. "At first you wear your pager, everybody's all excited, you get prepared, you have your suitcase ready to go or a small bag ready to go and then it's just like hurry up and wait and wait and wait and wait.

Her call finally came at intermission during a play she was helping with at a theatre in Kamloops. The operation gave her a new lease on life and undying gratitude to whoever made the decision to donate his or her heart.

"I'm very lucky and I'm very thankful that someone was able to give such a gift," she said. "I don't think they can understand what an impact this gift can have on a person's life, because it has actually given me a life to live."

Copyright © 2005 Penticton Western.

This article posted May 19, 2005.