Patient now needs kidney
Failing organs endanger transplanted heart man received as teen
James MacDonald trumped all the odds when he survived a heart transplant at the age of 13.
Now the 29-year-old Toronto resident is facing a life and death struggle again.
MacDonald learned last year that he has end-stage renal failure and needs a kidney transplant, says his mother, Sue MacDonald. She is hoping a live donor will come forward because the waiting list for deceased donors is so long.
“He will not survive to get an organ,” said MacDonald.
In Ontario, adults wait seven to 12 years for a deceased-donor kidney, depending on their blood type. About 3 to 5 per cent die waiting every year.
MacDonald planned to donate a kidney of her own but found out during an ultrasound in March that would be impossible because she has only one kidney. No one else in the family is healthy enough to be a donor.
“It’s devastating,” she said of the discovery. Dialysis has been keeping her son alive, but will do so only for so long.
In between treatments there are long periods of time when the blood isn’t being cleaned and poisons can break down, said Dr. Gary Levy, director of the transplant program at University Health Network. “The heart is affected, and a transplanted heart can be more affected.”
The Star covered James’s story in 1998 when the then 13-year-old’s heart wouldn’t start beating again after surgery to replace a valve.
James was hooked up to a heartlung machine that doctors estimated could keep him alive for up to five days if he was transfused with large amounts of blood. Thousands of Torontonians responded to the urgent appeal for O-positive blood. He was days away from dying when a donor heart came through, but after enduring 111⁄2 hours of surgery, his lungs failed. He was connected to a lung machine, his liver and kidneys failing, but he somehow managed to pull through. Up until last year’s diagnosis, he lived a relatively good life despite some health complaints, said his mother. People can offer to donate a kidney to a specific person. Called a directed donation, it’s not uncommon, said Levy. The hospital also gets phone calls from altruistic people who want to donate anonymously. University Health Network has a very active living donor program. The hospital network performs liv- ing donations for kidney and liver patients and is considering starting it in lung patients.
They also graft stem cells onto eyes, helping patients with corneal disease.
Anyone who wants more information can contact the hospital, 416340-4800, and ask for the living donor kidney office.