Two-time transplant recipient ‘lucky’
Surrey woman has enjoyed full, rewarding life and urges people to think about organ donation
I’m here today and my son is here today because people cared enough to do good for others.” Katie Welsh
For Katie Welsh, life has been one miracle after another.
This happy Surrey mom is the healthy survivor of two heart transplants, 30 years apart. In between, she got married and had a career, and now she is raising an active six-year-old boy with a heart-melting story of his own.
Katie was Canada’s first pediatric heart transplant patient at the age of seven after she was diagnosed with cardio myopathy, the result of contracting a virus.
“It’s not much different from catching the flu, but my heart caught it and it made me go into acute heart failure quite quickly,” she recalled. “I was very sick, living in ICU by the time I got a heart.”
Her family spent six months in Pittsburgh waiting for a suitable heart, which arrived after a young boy from South Carolina struck his head diving into a pool.
“It’s tough at first, but I recovered and resumed my life, playing baseball, swimming, on the track team — you would never have known I had gone through that,” she said. “I was really fortunate to receive that heart and it lasted almost 30 years, so I’m a pretty lucky girl.”
Heart transplants were not performed in Canada when Katie had her surgery in 1987, but that has changed in dramatic fashion, especially over the past five years.
The number of potential donors referred for transplants has tripled since 2013 and last year more than 500 organ transplants were completed in B.C. Those numbers are buoyed by the 1.35 million British Columbians who have registered as donors.
Katie married her husband Matt and pursued a 14-year career as a dental hygienist during a 30-year stretch of good health that defied the statistical averages.
While nearly every aspect of Katie’s life was normal, she was unlikely to have children of her own.
“When I married Matt, I knew it would be difficult for me to carry my own child because of the medications I take to keep my heart healthy,” she said.
As they explored their options for parenthood, a close friend offered to act as a surrogate to carry Matt and Katie’s child.
Charlie is now six years old — with a life full of friends and sports — and is the light of their lives, she said.
“I would say we live a pretty blessed life with other people giving us pretty selfless gifts,” she said. “I’m here today and my son is here today because people cared enough to do good for others.”
Heart transplant patients typically get no more than 20 years service from a new heart, so after such an extraordinary run it was inevitable that Katie would get sick again.
“I was one of the longest-lived heart transplant survivors when I started to go into heart failure,” she said. “I was really quite sick, so that I couldn’t even walk from the car to Charlie’s classroom without stopping to rest. It was a very scary time.”
But nearly one year ago, Katie received a new heart from a donor who remains anonymous to her.
“I feel gratitude every day in silent ways,” she said. “I would love for the family to know how that gift from their loved one gave me back my life.”
She urges everyone to talk their families about organ donation and to register at B.C. Transplant.
Recent growth in registration suggests British Columbia has experienced a cultural shift toward organ donation as a normal end-of-life option. The rate of deceased donors in B.C. is up 71 per cent compared to five years ago.
B.C. Transplant set a new high in kidney donations last year — 339 transplants — in part because of their focus on living donations.