"Walking Miracle" hopes her story will help others needing transplant
“You must have a strong heart.”
That’s what Frances Rea of the City of Kawartha Lakes remembers hearing as a team of people worked to save her life. Already profoundly weakened from kidney and liver failure, she was haemorrhaging after undergoing pre-transplant tests in a Toronto hospital.
For many years, polycystic kidney disease (PKD) had increasingly choked her kidneys and liver with cysts, leaving her so sick and frail, her strong heart and faith in God was all she had left. Due to her failing liver, Frances’ eyes were yellow “like buttercups”, she experienced head-to-toe itching, and her body was so toxic, she could taste it.
Frances was just days from her 52nd birthday, and wondered if she’d make it.
That day, doctors put her on the top of the most urgent list for a kidney and liver transplant (from not being on the list at all). Frances calls that the first miracle. The second was finding out four days later that a match was found and donor organs were on the way!
She remembers vividly how she felt. “It’s really going to happen,” she thought. “I’ll either wake up here or in heaven. Either way, it will be good.”
Right away, Frances began praying for the donor’s family, knowing that while her life might be saved, somebody had died. Months after the surgery, she wrote to them to thank them for her incredible gift.
‘It’s so hard to put into words… you hope that they’ll find some peace knowing that a part of their loved one is living on. And it’s not just one life that’s impacted when organs are donated. The patient’s whole family is very relieved and held together as well.”
Four years later, Frances feels good, living what she calls her ‘new normal’.
“People call me the walking miracle,” she says, laughing. “Each day is a gift.”
Frances hopes that by sharing her story, she’ll encourage more people to register as organ and tissue donors. “There are so many life-saving possibilities.”
RMH team encourages everyone to join organ donor registration drive in February
On February 4th, RMH will launch its month long donor registration drive with a special event in the main lobby (9am-2pm). Hospital staff will be available to answer questions about the organ and tissue donor program at RMH. Computers will be set up in the lobby, beside other life-saving equipment, making it easy to log on and make your decision to save lives be known.
It takes two minutes to register. It can take two minutes to buy a coffee and cookie. So, to help save people the two minutes it takes to register, the hospital team will have coffee and cookies available — one less line to stand in.
Currently in the City of Kawartha Lakes, there are 19 people waiting for an organ transplant. Thirteen are waiting for a new kidney, two need a kidney and pancreas transplant, two more need a new liver, one needs a lung, and another, a pancreas.
The majority of Canadians agree that organ, eye and tissue donation is a good thing, but less than half are registered donors. In fact, in our community, only 25% have registered their consent through the province’s Trillium Gift of Life program.
Many of us think that we are registered, since we signed a donor card that we carry in our wallets. However, a signed donor card is not recorded in the province’s database and may not be available when it’s needed. As anyone on the transplant list can attest, time is of vital importance when donation becomes possible.
On average, only 2-3% of hospital deaths occur in circumstances that will permit a person to become an organ donor. Having immediate access to a potential donor’s registration is a key part of the process that can result in a successful transplant.
Evidence shows, when families are presented with proof of a loved one’s donor registration, they’re more likely to consent to donation, but in the absence of registration, consent drops dramatically.
One organ donor can save eight lives. Visit the RMH donor registration page and help us increase the list of registered donors by 150.
For more information about organ and tissue donation, visit the Trillium Gift of Life Frequently Asked Questions page.