Organ Donation – Someone's Life Depends On It
- June 2003
- Français
Maria Bau-Coote was a typical teenager who happened to have juvenile diabetes. At age 18, she contracted an unusual infection, which was to change her life and could have caused her death. Maria ended up on intravenous antibiotics for two months, and because of that, irreparable damage occurred to her kidneys.
At age 27, Maria had to face the incredible challenge of having hemodialysis when her kidneys stopped doing their job of cleaning the blood and creating urine from waste fluid in her body. "I went to Hotel Dieu Health Sciences Hospital in St. Catharines for five hours at a time, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday," Maria recalls. "I did that every week for two years, and I continued to hold down my part-time job as a ward clerk at St. Catharines General Site's Emergency Department."
Strangely, Maria doesn't seem to resent the fact that she had to endure so much during those two years. "I looked forward to the dialysis, because after 'my cleaning' I would feel so much better." At the same time, Maria was put on a cadaveric waiting list for a combined kidney and pancreas transplant, after it was determined her family members were not an appropriate match.
Finally, in May when she was 29, the beeper all organ transplant candidates wear went off. "We went immediately to Toronto, but unfortunately, we found that the organs were not suitable," Maria said. "I think that was the most painful day in my life."
She was still on the waiting list, competing with about 45 other Ontario residents also waiting for the dual transplant. (The number of Ontario residents currently waiting for single and dual transplants is almost 1,800.) Six months later, in November, the beeper went off again, and this time the news waiting for them at Toronto General Hospital was good. At age 30, Maria went into surgery and nine days later, was discharged, complete with three kidneys and two pancreases. "They didn't actually remove my non-functioning organs, because it would add to the surgical time, and there was really no need." Instead, Maria's new kidney and pancreas were placed in the front of her abdominal cavity and connected during the 6.5-hour surgery.
"Back then, I was their first patient to be discharged so soon, but now nine days is becoming standard, as the transplant procedure becomes more advanced," Maria said. Of course, that was only the beginning of her road to good health, as Maria travelled from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Toronto every other day for three months to have blood work and essential functions tested. "That eventually lessened and now I go just once a year."
Without question, the transplant was worth it, as not only is Maria free from lengthy dialysis procedures, but has the added bonus of no more diabetes, because her new pancreas is creating the insulin her body requires. "I feel excellent," she enthused. "Everything is absolutely amazing, because my life has changed totally. It is as if I was looking at life through a gray shadow, and now I see brilliant, sunny colours."
Maria's transplant has certainly changed her perspective on life, and has also opened some new doors. Because of her successful transplants, Maria was recruited to the Niagara Regional Organ & Tissue Donor Awareness Committee as a patient advocate, and also represents the Trillium Gift of Life Network doing speaking engagements to raise awareness of the need for organ donation. Her hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed. Through her job as a Niagara Health System Quality and Education secretary, Maria is now the Niagara Health System representative on the Committee, aimed at supporting the upcoming transfer of the dialysis program from Hotel Dieu Hospital to St. Catharines General Site and Welland Hospital Site.
"We need to educate our medical staff and our emergency department staff about organ retrieval," Maria said. "Many dialysis patients are on organ waiting lists and our efforts can help them." Plans are in the making for a clinical education event in 2004.
Through her many years of dealing with failing health, Maria's spirit has kept her going. Now age 33 and married, Maria and her husband are planning to build a new home, and their future looks bright indeed. Seldom does an organ recipient learn who the donor was, particularly from the cadaveric waiting list, but Maria sent a thank you letter via the Trillium Gift of Life Network to the donor's family. She eventually received a note back, signed simply 'A Father', whose 21-year-old daughter had died and her kidney and pancreas were retrieved so Maria could live. "In his letter, the father said he feels it is a blessing that his daughter lives on in someone else," Maria said softly. "I share that feeling."
For more information on organ and tissue donation, check out www.giftoflife.on.ca.