Transplant a new start
Recipient of heart transplant among those who deliver boxes of popcorn at KGH in thanks to doctors, nurses
After living with a defective heart her whole life, Francine Timbers was given a new start when she had a heart transplant almost three years ago.
Timbers was born with a defective heart and had a defibrillator for 20 years before her heart started giving her trouble in 2013, she said.
“In January 2016, the doctors in Vancouver gave me a pill to improve my heart failure, and within four days I was poisoned and I was dying of kidney failure,” said Timbers, a Kelowna resident.
For one year, Timbers was on dialysis and was getting ready to go to the hospice when her doctor gave her good news.
“The doctor came into my room the morning I was going to the hospice and he tells me . . . ‘we don’t know how to explain it, it’s a miracle,’” she said.
Instead of going to the hospice, Timbers flew to Vancouver two weeks later for a heart transplant.
After 10 days on the waiting list, she got a new heart.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “I can do things I couldn’t do. I can breathe. I can walk. It’s a whole new life. Every morning I thank my donor and his family.”
Timbers and several other organ transplant recipients were at Kelowna General Hospital on Wednesday to deliver boxes of popcorn to staff in departments throughout the hospital, including cardiac, critical care, intensive care and the emergency department.
Melissa Nord, a registered nurse in the operating room at KGH, was one of the recipients of the boxes of popcorn.
“It’s really amazing coming down and meeting the people who get the transplants,” she said.
The harvesting of the organs is done in Kelowna, but organ transplants are done in Vancouver.
“We see the other side of it all the time, and we never get to see the happy ending of people’s lives being saved,” said Nord. “It’s really nice to confirm that we are doing a good thing.”
The transplant process is bittersweet, said Nord.
“It’s sad that we’re losing a life, but it’s an amazing gift that these people are giving.”
The Operation Popcorn program, co-ordinated by BC Transplant, has been taking place across B.C. for 27 years.