Ferris Backmeyer of Kamloops turned three years of age this week, and we all are hoping that this is the year in which she gets a new kidney.
On the occasion of Ferris’s third birthday, her mother, Lindsey, posted an update on Facebook:
“Happy Birthday sweet girl!
“Ferris has officially completed all her transplant assessment and we will hear more about listing and what the next several months will look like next Friday.
“I am not able to donate and we learned that Pat (Ferris’s father) is not a blood match for Ferris. We are reaching out and spreading her story in hopes that we may find just the right kidney for her!
“Our consult with the surgeons went about as I suspected it would. They are wanting her to be even bigger. For her to transplant at the size she is now we would need the perfect-sized kidney for her little body.
“I’m anxious that this process might take a long time. Our first year on dialysis was hard. She was really sick. The past eight months have been great and I worry we will miss our transplant window. She is strong and ready now.
“Please . . . help us find a kidney for our sweet girl!”
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If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:
Living Kidney Donor Program
St. Paul’s Hospital
6A Providence Building
1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-9027
Toll free: 1-877-922-9822
Fax: 604-806-9873
Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca
Flu shots. Get them. Period.
What follows is from Interior Health’s website, under the headline 2019-20 Seasonal Influenza Campaign:
“Flu shots are safe, easy to get, and free for those at risk and their household contacts.
“The people at the greatest risk of influenza-related complications are adults and children with underlying health conditions, residents of nursing homes and other chronic care facilities, people 65 years of age and older, children under 60 months of age, pregnant women, and Aboriginal peoples.
“It’s important that those who have loved ones that are most at risk of complications from influenza get vaccinated. This will help to build a wall of protection around your loved one and reduce their chances of acquiring influenza illness.”
Get a flu shot. Every single year. Transplant recipients and others who are at risk will appreciate it.
If you are going to be in the Pittsburgh area on May 12, you may want to take in the MLB game between the Pirates and San Francisco Giants. It will be Organ Donation Awareness Night at PNC Park. A portion of ticket sales will go to support CORE.
From a news release:
“The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) is one of 58 federally designated not-for-profit organ procurement organizations (OPOs) in the United States. CORE works closely with donor families and designated healthcare professionals to deliver the gift of hope by co-ordinating the surgical recovery of organs, tissues and corneas for transplantation. CORE also facilitates the computerized matching of donated organs, tissues and corneas. With integrity and compassion, our goal is to bridge the gap between donor families, health care providers and transplant recipients so that we may forever transform lives.”
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Teghan Simonton of triblive.com reported in mid-January that CORE “facilitated 661 transplants in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia last year — an increase from 2018 by nearly 10 per cent.” . . . She added: “There were 253 deceased organ donors in the region, nearly 20 per cent more than in 2018. Of those, 198 donors were in Western Pennsylvania. That’s up from 2018, when there were 162.” . . . There were 226 living donors involved in transplants, up from 191 in 2018. . . . As of mid-January, there were 112,693 people in the U.S. waiting for transplants. . . . Simonton’s story is right here.
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BC Transplant hasn’t released its 2019 numbers yet, but there is word of a record 2019 from the Universal Health Network (UHN), which is based in Toronto and bills itself as “one of the largest organ transplant centres in North America.”
In 2019, they did 201 kidneys, 202 livers, 209 lungs, 40 pancreas and 40 hearts. That adds up to 701 patients.
TAKING NOTE 