100th LVAD Celebration at TGH

Wednesday, I had the honour of attending the 100th LVAD [Left Ventricle Assist Device] Celebration at Toronto General Hospital.  The event featured talks by Dr. Heather Ross & Dr. Vivek Rao, both of whom are part of the heart transplant team at TGH.

In 2001, Dr. Rao [Surgical Director of Cardiac Transplantation at TGH], implanted the first LVAD on patient, Mike Schmidt.  The 100th was implanted in February, 2011.  Currently, there were two LVAD implants scheduled for this week and one for next.  Ontario recently provided funding to cover the implantation of twenty LVADs.  Prior to that, the cost was covered by donations.

Current & past LVAD patients & transplant patients with Dr. Rao

The LVAD provides a patient with heart failure with three options:

1. A bridge to a recovery [explanting or removing of the LVAD leaving the native heart]
2. A bridge to a transplant
3. Destination Therapy [end of life]

In Canada, heart failure is the number one reason for hospital admission.  Of the five hundred thousand Canadians are living with heart failure, 25-40% are at risk of dying one year after diagnosis.  The average life expectancy after diagnosis is 2.1 years.  Of all those diagnosed with severe heart failure only 5% qualify for a transplant or LVAD

My dad, John, with Dr. Delgado.  Dr. Delgado is a member of the TGH transplant team & one of my dad's cardiologists.

In all, it was a very informative session and celebration on a lovely, sunny afternoon in Toronto & wonderful to be invited to such a great event and see familiar faces.  We really are incredibly lucky to have such a cutting edge, competent and caring team at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at Toronto General Hospital!

Heart to Heart

I just finished a teen novel called Heart to Heart by Lurlene McDaniel.  It is a about heart transplantation, donor family and organ recipient meeting and cellular memory [which apparently occurs more often with heart transplants].  This book was a tear jerker given our family experience with organ donation.  Read below to learn about the inspiration behind the book.

After a bit of digging online, I discovered this review on goodreads.com by Lois Duncan:

Of course, I love it! This young adult novel about a girl who received s heart transplant is dedicated "To Lois, and to Kaitlyn whose heart lives on." 

One evening when my friend Lurlene and I were having dinner together,I told her about my daughter, Kaitlyn Arquette, who was chased down in her car and shot in the head in Albuquerque, NM, in 1989 (case is still unsolved). Kait was an organ doner, and, as the recipient of her heart and lungs came out from under the anesthetic, he described to his mother and to a nurse his vivid "dream" of a terrified girl being chased in her car by dark-complexioned men. Apparently Kait's final memories were transplanted along with her organs. 

I said to Lurlene, "This could be the plot of one of your novels." And, now, it is. (less)

Fourteen Years Ago Today....

Fourteen years ago today, Dr. Cusimano performed my dad's heart transplant surgery at Toronto General Hospital....we think his transplant was a bit of an experiment.  At the time, the cut-off to receive a heart was 65 years old.  My dad was 68 years old.  A donor heart couldn't be over the age of 40 and my Dad's donor heart was 50 years old.  If indeed he was an experiment, it worked!

Leaving Toronto General Hospital post-transplant with his brother, Dennis, wife [my mom], Mary,
and sisters, Mary and Rita.  The large bag on his lap are his meds....

In the last fourteen years my dad has seen his children graduate university, marry, experienced the new lives of four gorgeous grandchildren, fourteen birthdays [and re-birthdays], Christmas', Thanksgivings, many trips to South Carolina together, summers with the pool, and so many other wonderful memories and milestones....

Dad with the classic [puffy] Prednisone face.  This was taken in 1997 post-transplant in Etobicoke.

Dad [affectionally known as Nannan by my kids] last weekend with his four grandchildren.

We are eternally grateful for the generous gift of life given to him by his donor family and the amazing care from the transplant team at Toronto General Hospital and the impact it has had on our family.  Today, we celebrated his re-birthday miracle with family and cupcakes :D

Happy Transplanniversary...fourteen years to the day :D