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Windsor man walks the walk for organ donation
He was battling liver disease and had been informed if a donor wasn't found within a week he would die. Fortunately for Tom, a donor was found, and his health was restored. Yesterday (April 30), Tom returned to the place where the transplant operation was performed almost five years ago. Along with his brother Roger, he walked from Windsor to London Health Sciences Centre University Hospital, ending an eight-day trek aimed at raising awareness of the desperate need for organ donors and the benefit these types of donations can have on the lives of Canadians. Tom and Roger also walked the walk to thank the health professionals who cared for Tom when he needed it most, and to thank the family who signed their donors cards, giving Tom the liver he needed to continue living. "On Nov. 16, 2002, I was on my death bed. I had liver disease and they didn't know what caused it. My wife was told if they didn't find a donor in a week I wouldn't make it. Fortunately they found a donor with a matching liver and it saved my life. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for a very compassionate family," Tom said upon arriving at the transplant unit at University Hospital. He thanked the staff at the transplant unit and the man who performed his liver transplant, Dr. William Wall, director of the transplant program. Calling it "Tom's miracle," Roger said the family who signed the donor cards and gave Tom the gift of life were a "very compassionate family who made a tough decision to donate organs at a time of extreme grief. " Roger said the walk is an awareness raising, education process and will hopefully lead to more people signing donor cards. "People are frightened by it. They don't have an understanding," Roger said, adding misconceptions about organ donation need to be eradicated so more people can be saved with this gift. Dr. Wall said there are misconceptions surrounding organ donation but Tom's walk from Windsor to London might help spread the word about the need for more organ donors and may help educate the public, erasing these myths. "Too many patients in this country now are waiting on transplant lists, waiting without any surety that they will get a transplant at the most appropriate time when they need it, and unfortunately, from year to year, about 1-in-5 patients on the liver waiting list will die from lack of a donated organ," Wall said, adding the same statistic can be applied to heart transplantation. "There are so many patients on kidney dialysis in this country and they will spend four to five years in that kind of existence before they get a kidney transplant, if they are fortunate enough to get a kidney transplant at all," he said. "Some people think that transplant procedures are still experimental, not very good, and some think if they sign a donor card and are critically ill, the doctors won't do everything in their power to save them." These are just a few examples of misconceptions surrounding the donation of organs, Wall said. "We have a desperate need for organ donations. People should think about this and sign a donor card so Canadian lives can be saved as a result." Pointing to Tom and his walk from Windsor to London, Wall called it a demonstration to the world of how an organ transplant can make a person well again. "The miracle of transplant takes people who are desperate, close to death, and restores them to good health," he said. Healthy people take things for granted that organ recipients don't, Wall said. "They live every moment of every day in a different way than you or I do and they are thankful everyday for what they have received." |
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