A new life for double transplant recipient
Maria Bau Coote regularly speaks publicly about her double organ transplant.
Niagara donations, transplants
| 8 | Niagara residents were deceased donors in 2009 |
| 84 | Niagara families consented to organ and tissue donation in 2009 |
| 21 | lives were saved in 2009 through Niagara resident donations of 14 Kidneys / 4 Liver / 3 pairs of Lungs / 2 Hearts A person may have received more than one organ, so lives saved does not equal the number of organs |
| 56 | Niagarans on current wait list for transplants:
|
| 22 | per cent of Niagara residents with an OHIP card registered their consent by end of 2009 |
Dr. Neil Malcolm, the lead Intensivist in St. Catharines General Site Intensive Care Unit, says that increasingly more patients and families are aware of organ donation.
Niagara Health System has hosted two Living Green Ribbon events at Greater Niagara General Site to raise awareness of the importance of organ and tissue donations.
HOW TO DONATE
How do you register your consent to be an organ and tissue donor?
You can register your consent at an OHIP office when you renew or register for your health card. If you have the red and white card or have recently renewed your card and did not consent to donate, you can go to the Trillium Gift of Life Network website and download a Gift of Life Consent Form. Fill it out and mail it in to the address on the form.
If I have signed my donor card, why do I need to register with OHIP?
A donor card is a paper card carried by the prospective donor. Your decision to donate is only known to the extent that you share this decision with your family and friends.
When you register your consent to donate organs and tissue with OHIP, this information is stored in a database for the purpose of ensuring that your decision to donate is known and respected. By registering your consent to donate, your donation decision is recorded, is made available to the right people at the right time, and is shared with your loved ones.
Why me? Throughout her young life Maria Bau Coote has asked herself this question countless times. Known for her positive outlook and beaming smile, the past 10 years of Maria’s life have been packed full of amazing achievements. She married the love of her life Paul Coote in 2001 and brick by brick they built their home together in Niagara-on-the-Lake. In 2008, Maria became Executive Director of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Family Health Team. Ten years ago, Maria would never have believed that in 2010 her life would be where it is today.
Diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at age nine at a time when the disease was less prevalent among children than it is today, Maria struggled with being different from the other kids. “I remember kids didn’t want to sit beside me in class because they were afraid they would catch it. I continually asked, ‘Why me? Why am I different?’ ”
Coping with her diabetes into adulthood wasn’t easy. “I was angry and I didn’t take care of myself. I had just finished university, I was a diabetic, I was going on dialysis and in my mind I was going to die.” For three years, three times a week, Maria would spend five to six hours hooked up to a hemodialysis machine to cleanse her blood from the toxins and poisons that her kidneys could no longer handle. Maria’s part-time job as a registration clerk in the Emergency Department at St. Catharines General Site of the Niagara Health System was her escape. “I kept working when I could to stay sane. It was the only way I could maintain any normalcy in my life.”
With every day that passed, Maria’s health deteriorated. “I felt absolutely horrible all the time. I was tired and full of fluid. I had no future, no hope, no joy.”
It was 1997 and Maria’s nephrologist Dr. Ryuta Nagai, was up on the leading research. Dr. Nagai convinced Maria and her family that she was a candidate for a new double transplant technique for kidney and pancreas. At the time, only eight such transplant surgeries had been successfully completed in Canada.
Maria remained on a transplant waiting list for nearly two years. With one false alarm behind her, on the morning of November 3, 1999, her beeper went off for a second time notifying her to get to the Toronto General site of University Hospital Network. “It was my dad’s birthday. I was on dialysis in St. Catharines and on the phone wishing him a happy birthday. I hung up the phone and called Trillium. By dinner time that day, I was in Toronto, prepped and heading into the operating room.”
Nine days later, 30-year-old Maria was on her way back to Niagara beginning a new chapter in her life, again asking herself, “Why me? I couldn’t believe how good I felt. It was immediate. When I got back home, I was overwhelmed with guilt knowing someone my age would have died for me to have this chance at life.”
Maria says that there is not a day that goes by where she doesn’t look at the surgical scar on her stomach. “I remind myself every day of the opportunity at life I have received because of the selflessness of a total stranger. I can never forget that.”
As lead Intensivist in St. Catharines General Site Intensive Care Unit, Dr. Neil Malcolm says that increasingly more patients and families are aware of organ donation.
Dr. Malcolm credits the efforts of NHS healthcare professionals in the critical care areas – ERs and ICUs – in partnership with the Trillium Gift of Life Network Organ and Tissue Coordinator Nancy Glover for the growing donation rate here in Niagara. “Understandably any discussion about potential organ donation is a very difficult and sensitive conversation to have with family and loved ones of the patient. Nancy works hand in hand with our doctors and staff to help us do what we can do to respect donors’ wishes, support families at a very difficult time and increase organ and tissue donation to save lives.”
The NHS had the sixth highest number of eye donations in the province, climbing steadily from 18 eyes recovered in 2005 to 132 eyes recovered in 2009. In addition, there were eight multiple organ donors, resulting in the recovery and transplant of 23 life-saving organs, and five multiple tissue donations (such as skin, bone and heart valves), enhancing the lives of over 300 individuals. Also of note, in 2009, the NHS had over 95% compliance rate in notifying Trillium Gift of Life Network of every potential donor in Niagara.
NHS Chief Communications Officer Christine Clark was appointed in 2008 by the Province of Ontario to the volunteer Board of Directors of Trillium Gift of Life Network, Ontario’s central organ and tissue donation agency. “Making sure Ontarians know and understand about organ donation is vital to saving lives,” says Christine. “I encourage everyone to talk to their families about their wishes regarding donation.”
More than 1,600 people are on the transplant waiting list in Ontario, 56 of them from Niagara. “One donor’s generosity can have a tremendous impact on improving the health of others who desperately need transplants,” says Christine. “One organ donor can save up to eight lives through their donation and enhance the lives of up to 75 others through tissue donation.”
DID YOU KNOW
- One donor can save up to eight lives.
- More than 1,600 Ontarians are on a wait list for life-saving organs.
- Last year 953 life-saving transplants took place in Ontario as a result of the gift of life from deceased donors; 45 living donors gave part of their livers and 231 living kidney donors gave one of their kidneys.
- 218 deceased Ontarians gave the gift of life in 2009.
- Everyone is a potential organ and tissue donor, regardless of their age. To date, the oldest Canadian organ donor was over 90 years of age while the oldest tissue donor was 102 years old.
- Ultimately the ability to become an organ and tissue donor depends on several factors, including the health of the organs and tissue at the time of death.
- Recovery of organs and tissue is carried out with respect and dignity. It does not interfere with funeral practices and no one will know about your gift of life unless your family tells them.
- Organs and tissue that can be donated after death include the heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, small bowel, stomach, corneas, heart valves, bone and skin.
- Studies show that donating the organs and tissue of a loved one who has died can provide immediate comfort and long-lasting consolation to family members in their grieving. «
