Man with liver failure won’t seek injunction

Cary Gallant has cancelled his Friday court hearing to fight for liver transplant

After learning his health may be improving, Cary Gallant will not be pursuing a court injunction to get on Ontario’s liver transplant wait-list without being sober for six months.

Gallant received positive health information from his doctor late Wednesday and cancelled the Friday court hearing, his lawyer Michael Fenrick said.

Gallant will still be proceeding on the constitutionality of Trillium Gift of Life Network’s rule that bars alcoholics from the liver transplant list until they have been sober for six months.

“We’re monitoring his health quite closely and, if it declines, we’ll go to court,” Fenrick said.

The court date to address Gallant’s constitutional challenge has not yet been set, but Fenrick says he anticipates it will be sooner rather than later.

The goal of the challenge is to get Trillium to agree to immediately begin assessing patients who consume alcohol on a case-by-case basis to determine if they’ll be required to adhere to the current sobriety rule.

That rule is set to be waived starting August 2018 as part of a three-year pilot project.

“Until August, there’s a lot of people whose health won’t improve, who will die,” Fenrick said. “We need to persuade Trillium to do what’s right.”

In July, doctors determined that Gallant, 45 and an alcoholic, had a 75-per-cent chance of dying from liver failure before he reaches the halfyear of sobriety mark. He’s been sober since July 8.