By Adrien DesRoches, Corporal, Central North Correctional Centre, Local 369
In April of 2023, Central North Correctional Centre (CNCC) Rehab Officer Katherine Hamilton made the brave decision to help save the life of a stranger by volunteering to be a living liver donor.
In November 2022, after reading the heartbreaking story of a young child in need of a liver transplant, Katherine began investigating how she could become a living donor. Being a regular blood donor, she knew that her O negative blood type would likely match with many donor recipients. She sent off the initial health history form to the Centre for Living Organ Donation at the University Health Network and so began her living donor journey.
Not long after the health form was submitted, the living donor assessment office contacted her, and she began the assessment process of becoming a donor. After many consultations, CT scans, x-rays, MRIs, extensive blood work, and a psychiatry assessment later, she was approved to be a non-directed living liver donor.
After long discussions with her family and friends and speaking with staff services at CNCC regarding her recovery time, my wife and mother of 2, decided to be a living organ donor and donated approximately 2/3 of her liver to an anonymous recipient. The surgery was 6-hours long, with 5 days recovery in the hospital and 6 weeks of recovery at home, but it was all worth it for her to say she gave the gift of life.
The recipient remains anonymous to this day, but Katherine has been informed that they are doing well, and so is she.
Here are some little-known facts about living liver donation;
- 1 in 4 Canadians may be affected by some form of liver disease.
- In Ontario, the average wait time for a liver transplant from a deceased donor is 4 months but can be up to several years.
- In Toronto, at any point in time, there are approximately 200 people waiting for liver transplantation.
- 1 in 5 people with end stage liver disease will die waiting for a deceased donor organ this year.
- The donor’s liver, as well as the portion donated to the recipient, will regenerate in 6-10 weeks.
- The Ajmera Transplant Centre at UHN have performed more than 1,000 living donor liver transplants in children and adult recipients since 2000 – more cases than all other Canadian liver transplant programs combined.
For more information about being a living donor, go the University Health Networks’ Living Donor Program page.
https://www.uhn.ca/Transplant/Living_Donor_Program