Ferris’s kidney ‘happy and making a lot of pee’ . . . Surgeon says thanks for letting team be part of case . . . Mother: ‘Maybe this is miracle we’ve been waiting for’

Sisters
Ferris Backmeyer has been able to get together with sisters Ksenia (left) and Tavia as she recovers from a kidney transplant. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

Transplant surgeons are a special breed; they really are.

When Dorothy underwent her kidney transplant almost 10 years ago at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, the surgeon told me there wasn’t any need to hang around the hospital that day. He would, he said, call me at the hotel in which we were staying once they were done.

Yeah, I thought, a busy surgeon is going to take time out of his day to call me! Sure thing!! So I was in the hotel room at 2:30 p.m., when the phone rang. I picked up, fully expecting to hear an assistant or a nurse or a case worker on the other end. But, no, it was the doctor and he had all the time in the world for me and my questions, and that’s something I won’t ever forget.

That brings us to Lindsey Backmeyer and her Kamloops family. Ferris, the six-year-old daughter of Lindsey and husband Pat, underwent a kidney transplant a week ago at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Shortly after the procedure had been completed, Lindsey received a visit from the transplant surgeon.

Among other things, Lindsey wrote on Facebook, “He thanked me from the bottom of his heart and on behalf of everyone involved in her case for trusting them to be a part of her story.”

Is that special, or what? But these angels of the operating room are like that.

Lindsey added: “His thank you was so genuine you can’t help but love the guy. Cutting edge medicine is what i hoped for and this guy and his team delivered.

“Ummm, no sir, the thanks is all to you. For that, and to all of them. Thanks for being so friggin good at what you do!! My girl deserved this shot just as much as the next child and these guys made this happen for her.”

KidneyArt
The surgeon who led the team that performed Ferris Backmeyer’s kidney transplant provided her mother, Lindsey, with a water-colour painting of the new kidney. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

The surgeon also had a photo of Ferris’s new kidney, along with “his beautiful watercolour picture of her transplant.”

Is that amazing, or what?

“I had just fallen asleep when he came in to tell me they were done,” Lindsen wrote. “I was too distracted to really let him know what I thought of that picture . . . it’s beautiful. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. . . . I couldn’t love them more.”

As for Ferris, Lindsey reported late Friday night that “while things haven’t gone super smooth they are still going very well. The kidney is happy and making a lot of pee. Yay for a happy kidney!!”

If you’ve been following along, you will recall that there had been some concern about a urine leak.

Lindsey reported that it means Ferris’s catheter will be in place for another week before being removed. The good news is that “most urine is coming out of the catheter and minimal amounts are coming out of the drain. Seems solid to me!”

According to Lindsey, Ferris “had another great day. From a post-surgical recovery standpoint, she’s ready to bust out. But she’s not ready.”

In fact, Ferris will be in hospital for at least another week because of the catheter and the need to give her heparin via IV.

And now, according to her mother, she’s battling boredom.

“She made three batches of slime today. Did musical therapy and a lot of crafts. She also ate a ridiculous amount of food,” Lindsey wrote. “I forgot just how messy eating can be.”

Sounds like a normal six-year-old to me.

Lindsey’s excitement was more than evident in her latest posting. In fact, it practically leapt from my computer screen, especially at the end.

Ferris, Lindsey said, “is very officially on the other side. Doesn’t mean she’s outta the woods. Or there won’t be any complications. Just means they are post-transplant complications and not due to having end-stage renal disease.”

After six years of dealing with end-stage renal disease, please try to understand just how large this is.

“It’s a new world,” Lindsey added, “and we wouldn’t have been given this opportunity if it weren’t for Leah Scott and the urology team at Toronto Sick Kids.”

Scott, who also is from Kamloops, surrendered a kidney through the paired exchange program so that Ferris could get one via transplant.

Lindsey continued: “Forever friggin grateful for this chance. I’ve listened to this podcast where it says I believe in miracles. Do you? I friggin do. I believe in miracles. I always have.

“Maybe, just maybe . . . this is the miracle we have been waiting for.”

And let’s not forget that there also are two older sisters — Tavia, 11, and Ksenia, 9 — making this journey, too.

“Outside of that,” Lindsey wrote, “Ksenia is sick. Which has me a bit panicked. They won’t visit anymore. Hopefully it’s not already too late.”

It’s true, you know. A mother’s work, and worrying, is never done.

Stanley Cup gets some new names . . . Rouge rules in CFL game . . . Poljanowski signing means Royals’ Price just coaching now

If you are a fan of the WHL, you may want to count the names with ties to the league among the newest additions to the Stanley Cup. . . . The Golden Knights are the first team to have the names engraved on Lord Stanley’s mug before it goes on its annual summer tour.

Hey, was Thursday night’s CFL game between the Edmonton Elks and Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina great, or what? Let’s be honest . . . it couldn’t have been any more Canadian than it was. And, hey, he who rouges last rouges best. Right? . . . It wasn’t the most-exciting game you ever will have seen, but it left people talking, didn’t it?

If you missed it — I really hope that you didn’t and that you stuck around until the end — the Roughriders beat the Elks, 12-11, despite being out-rouged, 4-1.

The Roughriders now are 3-1; the Elks are — whoops! — 0-5.

Punter Jake Julien accounted for three of the Elks’ rouges, with the other coming off a missed field goal attempt by Dean Faithfull.

The Elks opened up a 3-0 lead on, yes, three rouges, and later led 11-3 with 70 seconds left in fourth quarter. That’s when Saskatchewan QB Trevor Harris hit receiver Mitch Picton with a five-yard touchdown pass. Harris then threw to Kendall Watson for the two-point convert and an 11-11 tie. (And is there a valid reason for Picton, a terrific route runner, not being in Saskatchewan’s starting lineup every game?)

There were 66 seconds left when Saskatchewan’s Brett Lauther drilled a 74-yard kickoff into the Edmonton end zone.

CJ Sims, the Elks’ returner, didn’t run the ball out of the end zone and the game’s final rouge, coming with the game just 62 seconds from OT, won it.

“He knows (he made a mistake),” Chris Jones, Edmonton’s general manager and head coach, said. “The moment was big and he’s a good little player. There will probably be more people talking about this than when he had a great game returning the other day.”

Just a thought, but perhaps Jones and/or Mike Scheper, the Elks’ special teams co-ordinator, forgot to give Sims pre-kickoff instructions?

As for Sims, he faced the music, telling reporters: “It hurts, man. It hurts. I feel like I let the team down. It hurts. It was a boneheaded play by me, but I’ll learn from my mistakes, and it’ll never happen again.”

Sims, a wide receiver and returner from Covington, La., attended New Mexico Highlands University. He had opened his CFL career on June 25 by returning six kickoffs for 181 yards and three punts for 101 yards in a 43-31 loss to the visiting Toronto Argonauts.

Sims’ faux pas in Regina helped take the spotlight off Jones, who was hit with a 10-yard penalty for obstructing an official. Jones was in his usual stance — hunched over, hands on knees — watching a play when one of the game officials, hustling down the sideline, came into contact with him.

Yes, it was one of those nights. . . .

Jeff DeDekker, who covers CFL games in Regina for The Canadian Press, has a story right here. . . .

Rob Vanstone, once a writer/columnist with the Regina Leader-Post, now is the Roughriders’ senior writer and historian. His game story is right here. . . .

Darrell Davis, who once covered the Roughriders for The Leader-Post, was at the game and wrote this piece right here for the newspaper.

JUNIOR JOTTINGS:

The Victoria Royals have brought in Joey Poljanowski as vice-president of hockey operations. He had been the manager of hockey operations with the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes since 2019. He also has worked with Hockey Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the OHL’s London Knights. . . . According to a news release from the Royals, Poljanowski’s signing means that “Dan Price will shift his focus completely to his role as head coach,” which is how it was from 2017-20, before he added the general manager’s responsibilities to his role. . . .

The Royals have agreed to a three-year extension with The Zone, an FM station owned by Pattison Media Ltd., for play-by-play rights and a new website — RoyalsFan.ca — that, according to a news release, “will bring fresh and behind-the-scenes content as well as exclusive contesting opportunities.” . . . The contract extension also means that Marlon Martens will be back as the team’s radio voice. The Zone has been the rights holder since the franchise moved from Chilliwack to Victoria for the 2011-12 season, and Martens is the only play-by-play announcer the team has known. . . .

Three WHLers who were selected in the NHL draft last month signed three-year entry-level contracts on Thursday. . . . D Tanner Molendyk of the Saskatoon Blades, who was the 24th overall selection, signed with the Nashville Predators. . . . The Predators also signed F Kalan Lind of the Red Deer Rebels. They selected him in the second round, 46th overall, of the draft. . . . The Washington Capitals signed F Andrew Cristall of the Kelowna Rockets. He was taken in the second round, 40th overall, of the 2023 NHL draft. . . . All three are 18 years of age, meaning that each is required to play in the NHL or be returned to his WHL team for the 2023-24 season. . . .

F Sammy May, who spent last season with the Vancouver Giants, has cleared WHL waivers and is a 2003-born free agent. He had one goal and eight assists in 63 games with the Giants in 2022-23. . . .

Rob Mahon, the play-by-play voice of the Prince Albert Raiders for the past two seasons, has joined the Brandon Wheat Kings as their media relations and broadcast director. Yes, that means he will be their radio voice. . . . Mahon was born and raised in Winnipeg. . . . Before heading to Prince Albert, he called the play for the SJHL’s Estevan Bruins for four seasons. . . . In Brandon, Mahon will take over from Brandon Crowe, who left after six seasons for a communications job with Hockey Canada. . . .

The BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks have hired Zach Stewart of their play-by-play voice and communications manager. He spent last season with the Merritt Centennials.

Fishing

THE COACHING GAME:

Éric Veilleux is the new head coach of the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts, who are the Memorial Cup champions. He takes over from Patrick Roy, who left the organization following the tournament in Kamloops. . . . Veilleux spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach with the Syracuse Crunch, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning.

Speed

——

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

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Groceries

Ferris went for a walk. How was your Tuesday? . . . Ball hockey gold for three WHLers . . . SJHL commish gets multi-year deal

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A smiling Ferris Backmeyer continues to recover from a kidney transplant at a Toronto hospital. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

Ferris went for a walk on Tuesday. Yes, she did!

Ferris Backmeyer, the six-year-old from Kamloops who underwent a kidney transplant last week, continues her recovery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

As her mother, Lindsey, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday: “Post op day 5 . . . she’s actually slaying all of this. Being sooo incredibly brave.”

That doesn’t mean things have been easy to this point, but everything seems to be pointing in the right direction.

“It’s not been easy at all,” Lindsey wrote, “but it also hasn’t been the hardest thing we’ve ever done. Not so far anyways.”

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Ferris climbed out of bed and enjoyed a stroll down a hospital hallway on Tuesday. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

If you’ve been following along, you know that there were some issues over the weekend. An ultrasound detected a bladder leak. According to Lindsey, that is “a somewhat common complication post-transplant . . . likely a clog in the catheter created back pressure and the leak happened. Catheters in post-op tiny humans are super tricky to manage. The tubing kinks so easily. Clots off so easily. She has a large amount of urine still leaking out of her drain.”

The really good news is that through it all the new kidney is motoring right along. Her creatine readings are good and Lindsey said that Ferris is having “solid labs” and “progressing really nicely otherwise!”

They freed her hands from IV hookups “so she is way less frustrated and can play. In fact, she played until 4:30 a.m. last night!! . . . She made it out for her first walk yesterday and made it look easy.”

Ferris also is eating well enough that Lindsey reported “they’ve stopped all daytime feeds . . . working towards getting all the extra fluid off without upsetting her kidney. She’s 2kg heavier than she was on surgery day and there’s nooooo way it was a 2kg kidney!!”

Adding weight is a really big deal with Ferris because that has been an issue for a lot of her young life and has impeded her route to a transplant in the past.

All-in-all, a tired Lindsey wrote, she “really couldn’t be happier with how things have gone. I feel like looking back we won’t even remember the hard times that much because the payoff is going to be soooo big!

“I’m certain if we make it home to Kamloops with this kidney, people are gonna be floored when they see her! She will be a totally different kid in the best ways possible!!”

A city awaits . . .

Polka

Craig West and the Tri-City Americans announced in April that he was stepping aside as their play-by-play voice. West, 68 this month, says he hasn’t retired, but that he simply is moving along down life’s highway. . . . West, who started in the WHL by calling Spokane Chiefs’ game, ended up doing 2,584 games. . . . Jeff Morrow, the former sports editor of the Tri-City Herald, spent some time with West and also touched base with a few hockey people and friends. It all resulted in a terrific look at West and his career . . . to this point. And that piece is right here.

F Conner Roulette of the Spokane Chiefs was named the tournament MVP after helping Team Canada to a gold medal at the International Street and Ball Hockey Foundation’s U20 Ball Hockey World Championship in Liberec, Czechia. . . . Roulette, Team Canada’s captain, had three goals as Canada beat Slovakia, 10-3, in the final. . . . Canada’s roster also included F Dawson Pasternak of the Brandon Wheat Kings, who had three goals and three assists in the final, and F Evan Friesen of the Wenatchee Wild.

Birds

James Patrick, who was the head coach of the WHL’s Winnipeg Ice for the past six seasons, thinks he’ll be taking a season away, with the franchise having relocated to Wenatchee, Wash., where it will play as the Wild. . . . Patrick, whose contract expired with the end of the 2022-23 season, told Mike Sawatzky of the Winnipeg Free Press that he had planned to coach at least one more season in Winnipeg. Sawatzky wrote that Patrick “had heard speculation about the possibility of a franchise move but only found out about the sale following an announcement by the league.” In other words, the Ice’s owners didn’t inform him of the move. Hmmm. . . . Sawatzky’s story is right here.

THE COACHING GAME:

Josh Dixon, an associate coach with the WHL’s Prince George Cougars for the past two seasons, has left the WHL team to take over as head coach of the U of Guelph Gryphons. . . . In Guelph, Dixon takes over from Shawn Camp, who ran the program for 16 seasons. . . . Camp retired following the 2022-23 season. . . .

Benoit Desrosiers has agreed to a three-year contract as the new head coach of the QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques. Desrosiers, 34, has worked as an assistant coach with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, Sherbrooke Phoenix and Quebec Remparts in past seasons. He spent 2022-23 as an assistant coach with the Memorial Cup-champion Remparts. . . . In Gatineau, he replaces Louis Robitaille, who spent three years in the position. . . .

The AJHL’s Lloydminster Bobcats have hired Brad Rihela as their head coach. He had been with the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs, as assistant GM and associate head coach, for the previous five seasons. . . . In Lloydminster, Rihela takes over from Nigel Dube, who remains with the organization as general manager. Dube had been the head coach since Nov. 12, 2018. . . . The Bobcats also announced that Jeff Woywitka has been named associate head coach and skill development coach. He had joined the team after last season’s Christmas break. . . .

The BCHL’s Coquitlam Express has hired Brett Sonne as an assistant coach. Sonne, from Maple Ridge, B.C., played four seasons (2005-09) with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen. For the past two seasons he has been an assistant coach with the junior B Ridge Meadows Flames of the Pacific Junior Hockey League. . . . Sonne’s brother, Brennan, is the head coach of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades. . . .

The AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints are in the market for a head coach after six seasons with Bram Stephen at the helm. The Saints announced Stephen’s departure on Wednesday, although no reason was provided. . . . “I will look fondly on my time in Spruce Grove as I look forward to the next opportunities in my career,” Stephen said in a news release. . . . He guided the Saints to the AJHL championship in 2018.

Think

JUNIOR JOTTINGS:

Kyle McIntyre has signed a multi-year deal to continue as commissioner of the SJHL. He is heading into his second season leading the 12-team league. . . . From a news release: In 2022-23, “the SJHL improved overall broadcast standards for both the fans and saw significant improvements in followers on all the league’s social media channels. Attendance levels over the season averaged 674 fans per game with over 222,498 fans for the season. In playoffs the average attendance was 1,137 per game and the league saw over 38,641 fans attend playoffs games. The league also saw a record number of NCAA and USport player commitments.” . . .

D Blake Heward, who cleared WHL 20-year-old waivers, has signed on with the SJHL’s Estevan Bruins. Heward had four goals and 21 assists in 103 regular-season WHL games, split between the Edmonton Oil Kings and Calgary Hitmen. . . .

F Kyle Bochek, who played last season with the Vancouver Giants, has cleared WHL waivers and is a free agent. Bochek, 20, had one goal and three assists in 48 games with the Giants last season. In 2021-22, he had three assists in 30 games. . . . 

F Jared Davidson, who played the past five seasons with the Seattle Thunderbirds, has signed a one-year contract with the Laval Rocket, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. Davidson, who will turn 21 on Friday, had 38 goals and 44 assists in 60 games with the WHL-champion Thunderbirds last season. He was a fifth-round selection by the Canadiens in the NHL’s 2022 draft.

Merge

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

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Cat

Ferris encounters some speed bumps . . . Blades, Broncos swing deal . . . T-Birds lose director of player personnel to NHL

Ferris070223
A chipper Ferris Backmeyer, 6, continues her recovery from a kidney transplant in a Toronto hospital. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

It seems that there almost always will be speed bumps in the recovery process after a kidney transplant.

Ferris Backmeyer encountered a couple on Saturday at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where the six-year-old from Kamloops underwent a transplant overnight Thursday.

With all that her family has been through over the past few years, they knew that this could happen. Still, that didn’t make things any easier.

“I knew there were gonna be bumps but tonight has been way too hard for my FerrisLogomama heart!!” Lindsey wrote on Facebook early, early Saturday morning. “(Friday) night was a bit tough in that I wasn’t able to sleep at her bedside and she woke frequently asking for me. So I didn’t get even a minutes sleep. Pat and I traded out and I slept during the day.”

And then Saturday started out “pretty good” but . . .

“She required (norepinephrine) overnight but weaned off of it when she woke up,” Lindsey continued. “She slept most the morning into the early afternoon. Then was pretty good. Her urine output really slowed down. Was hardly meeting targets but everyone was happy with the bloodwork and the urine output was considered acceptable. She got moved out of ICU in the evening at shift change.

“Well it musta been the elevation because she literally got crumpy as soon as we got upstairs. So much pain. Urine output dropped to less than 10mls an hour for a couple hours and then it was zero for the next two. She had a big jump in the output from her drain. The no urine output and intense pain for hours and then vomiting was breaking me.

“I was frustrated that it didn’t feel like much was being done. We couldn’t give more pain meds yet. No labs. Then the nurse told me they would order an ultrasound for the morning. I had only spoken to the resident that had come by to assess Ferris. She wasn’t a nephrology resident even and I just got incredibly articulate!!

“Magically . . . nephro came to the bedside. Ordered all the things including a stat ultrasound. They have albumin and lasix and she had really decent output. We just nicely got back from ultrasound. The preliminary report mentioned a narrowing in the ureter but good blood flow and no obvious big collections. Sigghhhh.

“Some of her tests aren’t back yet. She could still have a urine leak. But she made pee. She’s finally comfortable and asleep. Hoping for a bit of rest myself. The nurse is pretty busy with her. I suspect she will be in here most the rest of her shift.

“This is the first real bump so far and it scared the crap outta me. Feel better my girl!”

KFC

THE COACHING GAME:

The QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs are poised to name Sylvain Favreau as their next head coach. He had resigned as the head coach of the Halifax Mooseheads a week ago. With Drummondville, he takes over from Éric Bélanger, who resigned last month after just 63 games as head coach, 54 of them in the regular season. . . . That leaves six QMJHL teams without a head coach — the Cape Breton Eagles, Gatineau Olympiques, Halifax, Quebec Remparts, Rimouski Oceanic and Sherbrooke Phoenix.

JUNIOR JOTTINGS:

The Swift Current Broncos have acquired 2005-born D Tomas Zizka from the Saskatoon Blades for a conditional sixth-round selection in the WHL’s 2026 draft. Ziska, from Zlin, Czech Republic, had two assists in 32 regular-season games with the Blades last season. Saskatoon selected him in the CHL’s 2022 import draft. . . . The trade frees up the Blades to make one pick in Wednesday’s CHL import draft. Their second import slot is filled by F Egor Sidorov, who was their leading scorer last season. . . .

Cal Filson, who had been the Seattle Thunderbirds’ director of player personnel, has left the WHL team to work for the Chicago Blackhawks as an amateur scout. He had been with the Thunderbirds for 14 seasons, the last eight as director of player personnel.

THINKING OUT LOUD: Take a few minutes out of your day and track down a Washington Post feature written by Sally Jenkins that carries this headline: Bitter rivals. Beloved friends. Survivors. . . . It’s the story of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, their rivalry and their friendship, their battles with cancer and a whole lot more. . . . And it’ll be the best thing you read today. I guarantee it. . . . ESPN’s NFL coverage without Suzy Kolber and Steve Young? Say it ain’t so. . . . There isn’t much better than watching the Baltimore Orioles on TV with Jim Palmer, the ol’ right-hander, working as the analyst. . . . Is the hockey season over yet?

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

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

AlarmClock

Ferris’s journey continues . . . ‘We really couldn’t have asked for a better day’ . . . ‘I’m so proud of her’

How did Ferris Backmeyer handle Friday after having undergone a kidney transplant overnight Thursday?

Ferris, 6, asked to call her friend Amilia.

As Ferris’s mother, Lindsey, wrote: “We really couldn’t have asked for a better day!!”

The Backmeyers — Lindsey and Pat, with daughters Ferris, Ksenia and Tavis — are from Kamloops. They have been in Toronto for a couple of weeks now, first preparing for Ferris to undergo a kidney transplant at the Hospital for Sick Children and now going through the recovery phase.

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Ferris Backmeyer, 6, spent Friday resting up after having undergone a kidney transplant in Toronto. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

Ferris has had kidney issues for almost all of her young life, and Lindsey has done a wonderful job of documenting it all on Facebook.

Doing this no doubt is therapy of sorts for Lindsey, but it also is a way to keep in touch with family and friends via one posting, thus cutting out the need for a thousand different messages.

We can only imagine how many hours Lindsey has spent sitting in hospitals or Ronald McDonald House in Vancouver over the past six years, potential scenarios flipping through her mind with uncontrolled randomness.

When she posted in the wee hours of Saturday, it was impossible not to feel the excitement that was coursing through her system.

“I had considered what it might look like for things to have gone smoothly,” she allowed, “but, even then, it didn’t look like (Friday) . . . it was smoooooth!!!”

How smooth was it?

“Urine output amazing all day long. She weaned off really high doses of (norepinephrine) once she woke up! Maintained her (blood pressure) throughout the day, including when she napped this evening! Ultrasound looked great. She hardly skipped a beat.”

Ferris talked with her mother “about the things we played with (Thursday).”

And, yes, she asked “to phone her friend Amilia.”

But wait . . . there’s more!

“She was awake for several hours,” Lindsey continued. “Sat up a bunch of times. Played a bit. Ate some food. Was mostly kept comfortable. If she didn’t have her history she would have definitely been sent out of ICU (Friday) evening! Like holy heck girl!! Way to goooooo!! I’m so proud of her.”

However, you can’t have been on this ride with Ferris for these past years and FerrisLogonot come to expect the worst. You know how it goes . . . hope for the best and . . . It’s only human nature that the Backmeyers have experienced that time and time again.

At one point, Lindsey wrote: “I hate living in this constant fear of all the worst things.”

So why should things be any different this time?

“I’ve found myself holding my breath a lot of the day. Waiting for her to start to crash. But she didn’t,” Lindsey wrote. “Beyond my wildest expectations, we have gotten to the other side. I am constantly checking myself as to not get too excited. Knowing there are going to be some really hard days ahead.”

Lindsey, who has worked as a respiratory therapist at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, knows that her youngest daughter “definitely isn’t out of the woods in terms of clotting and/or bleeding for that matter.”

But there have been so many positive signs since surgery that “I’m gonna choose to celebrate today as a huge (bleeping) win!! Im gonna allow myself to dream a little that things could actually just be amazing. We are coming from such a bumpy world that we were ready for something new if even if it came with a different kind of hard.”

OK. So what’s next?

Lindsey is anxiously awaiting Ferris’s being moved out of ICU and onto a ward, which will mean mother will get to sleep next to daughter.

“I’m exhausted,” Lindsey admitted. “My one-hour attempt at a nap ended up being four solid hours. Ferris napped late in the day so has just fallen asleep. I can’t sleep at her bedside so I’m off to find a ‘parent recliner’ with hopes Ferris is asleep for the night!”

And don’t think for a moment that the Backmeyers, even with all that has been happening, aren’t aware of the thoughts and prayers and love that have been sent their way.

“Once again, thanks so much to everyone for all the support,” Lindsey wrote “It’s been incredible!! It’s been exactly what we didn’t know we needed!! My brain is super fried, so the words really aren’t there to genuinely express how loved we feel! But we feel it! It’s so tangible! Love you guys.”

——

Leah Scott, a mother of three from Kamloops, was involved in Ferris’s transplant via the paired exchange program. Ferris and Leah weren’t matches, but Leah gave a kidney to a stranger in order for Ferris to receive a kidney from someone else, all as part of a chain.

On Saturday, Leah wrote:

“The final part of our journey to donation and transplant was spent finalizing testing, prepping, and a lot of breath-holding while we were continually reminded this could be called off right up to the day. And 20 days before our original surgery date, it was.

“For some painstaking days it all hung in the balance. But we got a new date. In two months. It felt too long. Too far. Yet in the end it set the stage for me to do some very important things at home for my own family and allowed my buddy to be her strongest and most ready that her family had ever seen.

“The timing was indeed perfect. The week was pretty textbook. My recipient took their kidney right away and was doing well. My buddy defied all odds and rocked her surgery better than anyone could have hoped for. It played out just as I had envisioned hundreds of times.

“I am forever changed. My faith is deeper and richer. I am humbled to have been called to something so much bigger than myself. The honour has been mine to be part of giving life to others.”

Ferris stable early after kidney transplant . . . Good news: ‘There is a big bag of pee’ . . . Youngster’s journey enters new chapter

FerrisAfter
Ferris Backmeyer, 6, was stable early Friday after undergoing a kidney transplant in Toronto. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

Those people following the Backmeyer family’s journey through daughter Ferris’s second kidney transplant were greeted by seven glorious words on Friday morning.

“There is a big bag of pee.”

That was part of a brief update from Lindsey Backmeyer, Ferris’s mother, after her six-year-old daughter had undergone a kidney transplant during the night at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.

The Backmeyers are from Kamloops.

“She’s been out for a few hours now. She’s stable,” Lindsey wrote on Facebook. “There is a big bag of pee. The doctors are all very happy with how she’s doing. Her surgeon told me it was a beautiful kidney and it woke up right away!”

All of that is awesome news. The fact that the new kidney quickly sprung into action and began producing urine is as good as things get at this stage.

“Her creatinine was already down to 120s,” Lindsey continued. “She’s breathing kinda fast and looking pretty puffy, but is managing okay at the moment.

“They are only replacing what comes out now. Let today be smooth and not scary!!”

——

To date, this has been a year of high stress for the Backmeyers, who had to relocate to Vancouver early on as Ferris encountered some infection issues that resulted in her having to be transitioned from peritoneal dialysis to hemodialysis. BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver is the only place in the province where children are able to receive hemo.

At the same time, the family was prepping for an April 25 transplant date in Toronto. However, that date was cancelled a week before as there was a break in the chain.

Ferris’s second transplant was done via the paired exchange program. While there was a break in the chain in April that wasn’t the case on Thursday.

The paired exchange program works like this: A donor, in this case Leah Scott of Kamloops, agrees to donate a kidney to a stranger, but only if the person she is acting on behalf of, in this case Ferris, gets one. What it amounts to is that Ferris and Leah weren’t matches, but when a match was found for Ferris, Leah offered to stay in the chain and see the process through to its end.

Due to privacy concerns, we aren’t privy to how many people are in a chain, but it could be four, six, eight . . . so you know that the logistics are something to behold.

——

FerrisBefore
Ferris was looking rather chipper on Thursday before she underwent a kidney transplant. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

Lindsey wrote that the family — father Pat and older daughters Ksenia and

Tavia also are in Toronto — enjoyed Thursday before Ferris went into surgery that night.

“Mostly perfect day today,” Lindsey wrote. “(Ferris) would have said today was a great day although I’m not so sure what she’s gonna think of us all when she wakes up. She hopefully had her last hemo run.”

With all the testing behind her, Ferris was able to spend time with her family.

“She had zero tests so we took her for a walk to the park in the afternoon,” Lindsey said. “She FaceTimed auntie Terri and her friend Amilia! The day went by fairly quickly overall. She was a happy little clam all day.”

At the time Lindsey was writing this, Ferris likely was undergoing her second transplant in two years.

“It’s late here and she’s been in for a few hours now. Still a few more to go,” Lindsey wrote. “She had moments of being nervous today but she mostly was just so incredibly brave. Love her soooo much! Can’t wait to hold her again!”

——

This was the second time that Ferris underwent a transplant. She went through one on March 6, 2021, at BC Children’s Hospital, but there were complications and the new kidney had to be removed not long after it was put in place.

She has known almost nothing but dialysis, either peritoneal or hemo, for most of her young life. She wasn’t a candidate for a transplant earlier because of her small size and an inability to put on weight and keep it on.

There almost was transplant surgery in December 2020. The Backmeyers were at home in Kamloops when they got the call that a kidney was available for transplant. They left for Vancouver, but the surgery was cancelled at the last minute.

The transplant on March 6, 2021, followed.

After that transplant attempt failed, Lindsey explained:

“Urology basically said the donor kidney was perfect but it was challenging to anastamose to Ferris because of the size of her vessels. He basically said he wouldn’t consider another transplant again until she’s bigger, which terrifies me because she isn’t growing well on dialysis at all.

“He worried they underestimated her heart health and it might not have been strong enough to perfuse the organ. This is big scary stuff.”

But now, about three years after the Backmeyers were given the go-ahead to look for a living donor, here we are.

——

While the Backmeyers were in Toronto awaiting Thursday’s surgery, Leah Scott was in an undisclosed location where she had a kidney surgically removed earlier in the week. That kidney was then transplanted into a recipient as part of the chain that also included Ferris.

“I don’t believe that God ever needs us to fulfill His purpose,” Leah, a mother of three, wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “But I do think He chooses to use us when we are willing to say yes. And I think the blessing is that we get to be part of something so much bigger than ourselves. I believe the day is today.

“As hope builds within this sweet child’s community and this wave of green ribbons spreads and the anticipation rises that her win is here . . . I am so thankful I had the opportunity to say yes. It’s your day sweet girl. We all feel it!”

——

Perhaps no one summed up the emotions of all this any better than did Andrew Scott, Leah’s husband, who wrote:

“For anyone not already following along on Leah Scott posts, her recipient now has a working kidney.

“Ferris also got her kidney (Thursday) night. The surgery went well and now she begins her recovery.

“Continue to pray for Leah, Ferris and all of the other donors and recipients. This is a truly touching story and I fight back tears every time I read about lives being changed and all of the support and prayer covering these fighters have.

“Truly humbling.”

Ferris’s transplant day has arrived . . . You got this, girl!!! . . . Some hockey stuff here, too

FerrisLogo

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since we were the parents of a youngster. But I still can remember the helpless feeling that came with having a child who was under the weather because of the flu or a bad cold or even just aches that couldn’t be clearly explained.

So I can’t imagine what it must be like to be waiting and waiting and waiting for your six-year-old to undergo her second kidney transplant, especially knowing that the first one didn’t work.

But that’s where Lindsey and Pat Backmeyer of Kamloops found themselves this week as Ferris, the youngest of their three daughters, was being prepared for a transplant.

Lindsey has kept family and friends up to date while doing a tremendous job of chronicling everything the family has gone through.

Ferris was scheduled for surgery late Thursday night at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

“I can’t even believe we are here and that my girl will be going for a kidney transplant today,” Lindsey wrote on Facebook earlier Thursday. “I think about it in my head and I get full-body goosebumps. To say it feels huge would be such an understatement!!”

The Backmeyers spent a few weeks in Vancouver as Ferris received some attention at BC Children’s Hospital. Then, a couple of weeks ago, they all flew to Toronto to await a transplant.

“Ferris never did convert to Eastern time and fell asleep at 1 a.m. (Thursday),” Lindsey wrote. “So she currently is still asleep and having her final dialysis run.”

After Ferris was to go into surgery, Lindsey said she didn’t “expect to see her until 5 a.m.-ish.”

So what does a mother do while waiting for something of this magnitude to happen?

“I’ve spent the morning just feeling all the support from everyone,” Lindsey wrote. “My feed is literally glowing green. To be so far from home, this really has helped me to not feel alone at all. It’s a big (bleeping) day. Our last attempt at this surgery resulted in the absolute worst day of my life. Let this time, be one of the best.”

Lindsey was writing while waiting for Ferris to awaken to the latest biggest day of her young life.

“She will wake up soon and my phone will get put away,” Lindsey explained. “We plan to hang out as a family. Probably a bunch of FaceTime. She already has a line so won’t need an IV. (Thursday) should be pain/trauma free for her.

“She has been a champ with the admission so far. She’s so much older and it’s a lot different than it was two years ago. This time, we had to prep her for it. Let her know she was going to be admitted and having surgery. That she needed to have a COVID swab. Ughh! She has had at least a dozen of them so knows exactly what they are. . . . She knows this is hard and if it works it means no more dialysis. She’s being so brave.

“I’ll update as I can but want everyone to know that we feel so supported and loved. It’s exactly what we need right now.”

In a decision released on Feb. 3, Justice Paul Perell refused to certify a proposed class-action lawsuit involving hazing, bullying and abuse against the CHL, the CHLthree major junior leagues (the OHL, QMJHL and WHL) and its teams. . . . That suit was filed in June 2020. . . .

Rick Westhead of TSN writes: “In his Feb. 3 decision, Perell wrote he’s convinced that abuse in junior hockey is widespread and has been for decades, and he applauded the bravery of former CHL players, including Dan Carcillo, Garrett Taylor, and Stephen Quirk, for sharing their stories in a public forum. Even so, he said the case was not suitable to proceed as a class-action lawsuit.” Why not? Perell wrote: “The immediate lawsuit is about egregious harms perpetrated on children and the persons or entities at fault should be punished, but even children know, and in their heart Messrs. Carcillo, Taylor, and Quirk in their noble pursuit of cleaning hockey must know it is wrong and fundamentally unjust to punish teams for something that somebody else did.”

On Thursday, Westhead reported that attorneys for those pursuing the lawsuit “have outlined a proposed path to justice for current and former players who want to join the case. In a 560-page motion filed in Ontario Superior Court on June 5, James Sayce, a lawyer with the Toronto firm Koskie Minsky LLP, wrote that any players wanting to pursue a case must be assured that their identities will be kept confidential, unless they choose to share their story publicly.”

Westhead’s complete story is right here.

Cauliflower

THE COACHING GAME:

The Swift Current Broncos lost an assistant coach on Wednesday when Matt Keillor left to join the Northwest Calgary Athletic Association as director of hockey operations. He had been on the Broncos’ staff for two seasons. . . . Keillor, 41, is from Calgary. . . .

The OHL’s Sarnia Sting announced on Wednesday that general manager Dylan Seca and head coach Alan Letang have agreed to three-year contracts. . . . Seca has been with the Sting since 2014-15, first working as the director of player personnel for five seasons. He has been the GM since May 2020. . . . Letang has been the head coach since June 2021. He joined the Sting from the Owen Sound Attack, where he spent five seasons, the last two as head coach. . . . The Sting also said that Brad Staubitz, the associate head coach, assistant coach Michael Haley, equipment manager Dawson Young and athletic therapist Jennifer Love will be returning for another season. . . .

Mathieu Turcotte is the new head coach of the QMJHL’s Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. Turcotte, 38, has QMJHL experience, having worked as an assistant coach with the Val d’Or Foreurs, Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Drummondville Voltigeurs. Last season, he guided the Blizzard du Séminaire Saint-François to the Canadian U18 AAA Championship. . . . With the Armada, Turcotte replaces Bruce Richardson, who was fired in June after having been there since June 2018.

The biggest news from the NHL draft that wrapped up Thursday in Nashville? I would suggest that it was the decision by the Tampa Bay Lightning to reassign Al Murray, its director of amateur scouting and assistant GM, to senior adviser to the GM. Murray, 66, surely is a lock for the Hockey Hall of Fame. He had been running Tampa Bay’s amateur scouting since Aug. 16, 2010.

Pork

JUNIOR JOTTINGS:

F Riley Fiddler-Schultz, who spent the past five seasons with the Calgary Hitmen, has signed a two-year deal with the AHL’s Rochester Americans. Last season, as a 20-year-old, he put up 75 points, including 31 goals, and was named the Central Division’s first all-star team. In 246 regular-season games, he totalled 78 goals and 113 assists. . . .

The Prince Albert Raiders will have a new radio voice in 2023-24 with the news that Rob Mahon is leaving CKBI, the station that holds the team’s play-by-play rights. Mahon called the play of Raiders’ games for the past two seasons. . . .

The AJHL’s decision to go to a fully interlocking schedule will cost the Canmore Eagles about $65,000, team president Darryl Lockwood has told Jordan Small of the Rocky Mountain Outlook. As a result, the Eagles are pleading with the community for more support. . . . “We need the increased revenue, which means, unfortunately, that goes back to the customer, it goes back to the providers, back to community; ticket sales have to go up a little bit, sponsorship has to go up,” Lockwood said. “We’re not here saying, ‘Hey, we messed up and we blew some money,’ that kind of thing. We’re here saying that we’re faced with a real challenge and so the support from what everyone can do will be grateful this year. Please understand, we need your support because of the challenge we’re faced with.” . . . Small’s story is right here.

Torch

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

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Childbirth

Stankoven saluted by Hockey Gives Blood . . . Eight QMJHL teams need head coaches . . . Royals, Chiefs make deal

Logan Stankoven had quite a surprise awaiting shortly after he arrived home in Kamloops from a vacation in Italy.

On Tuesday night, before close to 100 people, he was saluted by Hockey Gives Blood, which presented him with the Dayna Brons Honorary Award “for his selfless contributions in support of patients who rely on Canadian Blood Services.”

Brons was the athletic therapist for the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos. She was on the team bus when it was involved in that horrific accident on April ??, 2018, and she died five days later. She had been a committed blood donor.

Stankoven, the captain of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, is a Hockey Gives Blood player ambassador. He is the fifth player ambassador to receive this award. He has been a player ambassador since the age of 17 and is a blood donor. He also has joined Canadian Blood Services’ stem cell registry and has played host to community blood drives.

He also played host to the largest fundraising initiative since the inception of Hockey Gives Blood. The Logan Stankoven Charity Night helped raise

more than $41,000, with all proceeds helping fund the vital efforts of Canada’s Life line — from recruitment of more blood, plasma, stem cell and organ and tissue donors to world-class research.

As the winner of this award, Stankoven also is eligible to receive a $5,000 educational bursary.

Previous recipients of this award are Jacob Ingham (Kitchener Rangers), Matthew Welsh (Charlottetown Islanders, Braden Hache (Kingston Frontenacs) and Logan Nijhoff (Regina Pats).

There are 18 teams in the QMJHL. As of Tuesday evening, eight of them were qmjhlnewwithout a head coach. . . . The latest to fall into that category are the Halifax Mooseheads and Sherbrooke Phoenix. . . . Sylvain Favreau, the Mooseheads’ head coach, resigned Monday, citing personal reasons. He had been with Halifax through six seasons, the past two as head coach. Halifax lost the QMJHL final to the Quebec Remparts last month. . . . The Phoenix lost Stéphane Julien, their general manager and head coach, to an as yet unnamed AHL team. He had been with the Phoenix for the past 12 seasons, the last three as GM/head coach. . . . The Mooseheads and Phoenix join the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, Cape Breton Eagles, Drummondville Voltigeurs, Gatineau Olympiques, Quebec Remparts and Rimouski Oceanic as teams now on the hunt for a head coach.

Dogpoop

If you’ve been watching MLB games of late, you will have seen or heard references to a new pitch that seems to have taken hold. Actually, it’s an old pitch. As Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle notes:

Nice to see the so-called ‘sweeper’ pitch absorb more ridicule from ex-players who realize it’s an analytics-created fallacy. “It’s not a ‘sweeper,’ that’s a slider,” Dave Stewart said on the A’s postgame show Thursday. “I sweep my floors with that thing, I don’t bring it into a baseball game. I can’t see any pitcher, in his bullpen between starts, working on throwing a flat breaking ball. When that pitch doesn’t have some depth to it, it gets hit pretty good. It’s a mistake that’s made, and that thing just stays up in the strike zone.”

More from Jenkins on the, uhh, ‘sweeper’:

Mike Krukow was onto the ruse early, calling it a “highschool Harry curve,” and Giants broadcast partner Duane Kuiper is equally unimpressed. Contacted via text, Kuiper responded, “I’ve never said ‘sweeper’ in my life.”

Krukow and Kuiper, both former major leaguers, work together on the San Francisco Giants’ TV crew, and they are terrific.

Victor Wembanyama was the No. 1 selection in Thursday’s NBA draft, taken by the San Antonio Spurs who will sign him to a four-year contract that will be worth somewhere around US$54.4 million. . . . QB Bryce Young, who was taken by the Carolina Panthers with the first pick of the NFL’s 2023 draft, will end up with a $38-million deal. . . . Allan Walsh, a prominent player agent, tweeted this on Friday: “The NHL’s No. 1 overall pick will have his three-year entry-level contract capped at a signing bonus of $95,000 per year, salary capped at $855,000 per year and difficult to attain performance bonuses capped at $1,000,000 per year (all minus 6 per cent escrow).” . . . Hey, folks, now you know why the NHL owners are so in love with Gary Bettman, their commissioner.

Home

THE COACHING GAME:

Ryan Craig is the new head coach of the Henderson Silver Knights, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. Craig 42, was an assistant coach with the Golden Knights since the team’s first season (2017-18). . . . He played five seasons (1998-2003) with the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings while Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon was the owner and GM. . . . Craig replaces Manny Viveiros, whose contract wasn’t renewed after three seasons. . . .

Ryan Huska and Dan Lambert are back together, this time on the coaching staff of the NHL’s Calgary Flames. Huska is the Flames’ new head coach. Lambert was named an assistant coach on Friday, after having been dropped by the Nashville Predators. He had been with the Predators for four seasons. . . . Lambert worked as an assistant under Huska for three seasons (2011-14) with the Kelowna Rockets. Lambert took over as head coach after Huska joined the Flames organization as the head coach of their AHL affiliate, then the Adirondack Flames.

JUNIOR JOTTINGS:

The Victoria Royals have acquired F Grady Lane, 20, from the Spokane Chiefs, in return for an eighth-round selection in the WHL’s 2025 draft. Lane had six goals and six assists in 66 games with the Chiefs last season. In four seasons there, he totalled eight goals and 15 assists in 129 games. . . . At 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, Lane adds some grit to the Royals’ lineup. Earlier, the Royals acquired Justin Lies, another gritty 20-year-old, from the Saskatoon Blades. . . .

Two skaters who played out their 20-year-old seasons with the Brandon Wheat Kings are off to Italy. F Calder Anderson and F Nolan Ritchie, both of whom are from Brandon, have signed with HC Merano of the Alps Hockey League. . . . Anderson played 98 games over three seasons with the Moose Jaw Warriors before putting up 50 points, 16 of them goals, in 65 games with the Wheat Kings last season. . . . Ritchie had 70 points, 27 of them goals, in 67 games in 2022-23, after putting up 76 points, including 33 goals, in 66 games in 2021-22. After the Wheat Kings’ 2022-23 season ended, Ritchie got into five regular-season and six playoff games with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies, totalling two goals and three assists. . . . HC Merano’s head coach is Tom Coolen, who is prepping for his first season there. He is a veteran of the Canadian university game, having coached at Acadia U and the U of New Brunswick. He also spent two seasons with the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats before heading to Europe in 2001. . . .

The Vancouver Giants are looking for an equipment manager after Brodie St. Jacques left to join the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. . . . He had been with the Giants for two seasons. . . .

Vukie Mpofu, who played one full season (2013-14) with the Red Deer Rebels, has been hired by the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins as director of hockey operations and legal affairs. Among his responsibilities will be contract negotiations and salary cap issues. . . . He had been with the Los Angeles Kings for the past two seasons. . . .

Serge Beausoleil is the new general manager of the QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques. Beausoleil, 56, signed a five-year contract. He had been with the Rimouski Oceanic for 12 seasons (2011-23) — three as head coach and the past nine as GM/head coach.

——

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

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Tuna

The story of kidney transplant process, from recipient’s mother and a living donor . . .

All signs are pointing to this being a big week for the Backmeyer family of Kamloops, what with Ferris, 6, in line to get a new kidney at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

The Backmeyers have been in Toronto for a couple of weeks now and it seems that things have gone well to this point. So sometime over the next few days Ferris just might get a kidney from a living donor via the paired exchange program.

FerrisMom
Lindsey Backmeyer and Ferris, her six-year-old daughter, are in Toronto and they’re ready for a second kidney transplant. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer/Facebook)

What follows is the story of people involved in this chapter of Ferris’s life and what they have gone through and continue to experience as the transplantation process moves along.

On Sunday, Lindsey, Ferris’ mother, introduced the world to Leah Scott and, in the process, provided a great look at the process.

“If you don’t already know,” Lindsey wrote on Facebook, “this beautiful human is Ferris’s paired exchange donor. Leah Scott has been working toward this now for 2.5 years!!!!

“I met Leah at work. She worked in emerg (at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops) and I made friends with one of her besties. Friendly acquaintances at best. However, she heard about Ferris and Leah’s remarkable ability to put herself into another’s shoes led her to where we are today. She has felt a calling and has fought really hard to get where she is today. All while living her life, raising her kids, working her business!!

“Donating a kidney in Canada isn’t an easy process. Aside from the fact that she’s going to give Ferris her second chance, she’s become one of my biggest cheerleaders and offers support like none other.

“I sit here (Sunday night), knowing that this is all happening sooooon. We aren’t allowed to talk about dates, times and locations but we are in Toronto (everyone knows that already) and by the end of this week my girl should be on the other side.

“Leah has started her journey. She’s left her kids with family and is with her husband awaiting her surgery which is soon.”

When it happens, it will be the second transplant that Ferris will have undergone. The first one, from a deceased donor, took place on the afternoon of March 6, 2021, at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. However, there were complications and the kidney was removed later that night.

Between then and now, there were lots of twists and turns, including one that involved another person who was found to be a match for Ferris. With all that’s happening now, Lindsey couldn’t help but think of her.

“I think about how we even got here (in Toronto) and it really wouldn’t be without Ferris’s original donor,” Lindsey wrote. “The one who brought us to Toronto in the first place. She’s a nurse who works at (B.C. Children’s Hospital) and Canuck Place. She heard about Ferris in one of her nursing groups at the time of her failed transplant.

“I won’t disclose her name as she remained mostly anonymous throughout the whole process. We did connect just a week before I learned about the second kidney via paired exchange. She’s lovely. Has a big beautiful family. She didn’t want me to feel like I owed her anything and also wanted to be sure it was ‘on’ before reaching out.

“She was a good match for Ferris but BCCH surgeons didn’t feel comfortable doing the surgery. Knowing how challenging it is to find a good match she asked if they would get a second surgical opinion. She just wanted the best for Ferris and I can’t help but love her for that.

“A perfect stranger . . . that’s what got us access to Toronto Sick Kids Hospital. If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be HERE!”

And now the Backmeyers are ready, as is Leah Scott.

“Leah, we love you!! You’re so special and will always be loved by our family,” Lindsey wrote. “I hope everything goes so smoothly for you. I’ll be thinking of you tons as you prepare for this. It’s friggin huge. We are finally here. Huge hugs!!!”

As for Leah, she also took to Facebook, writing that “2.5 years ago, God laid it on my heart to donate (a) kidney to a child of a friendly work acquaintance. I started the process to get tested knowing deep in my spirit that I would be part of her story. During my testing, she got a deceased donor kidney and I wondered if I heard wrong. But that kidney was unsuccessful. So I kept going until they told me I was a match! But then they told me they didn’t want my kidney because it was too big and I could get out of the donation program. I said I would stay. Because I knew that God had other plans . . .

“A couple of months after, they told me that they didn’t need me anymore and they weren’t pursuing paired exchange at this time. We found out Ferris was highly sensitized, meaning it would be close to impossible to find her a new kidney. So I reached out to ask to be retested and we were no longer a match.

“But . . . they were willing to try the paired exchange program if I was willing to be paired with her, meaning if a kidney came up for her, she would get that one and I would give mine to a stranger.

“I said, ‘Yes.’ That was 1.5 years ago.

“While we waited on the paired exchange list, another living donor came up. She was slated for transplantation in April. I had no idea why God had called me to this but it seemed like it wasn’t going to be me to be part of her journey after all.

“Every week our paths crossed at piano lessons for this past year. Every week, I prayed that I would see what God had for me next. Maybe someone else would need a kidney and I was ready.

“Then on Feb. 3, 2023, I got a call from the donor program. They had a better kidney (that is her miraculous just-right match) in the program if I was willing to donate.”

That brings us to this week. The Backmeyers are in Toronto. Leah Scott will be in a hospital somewhere in Canada; the location is known only to a few because of privacy concerns. But the preliminary testing is over and there doesn’t appear to be anything but green lights.

So let’s keep these folks in our thoughts and prayers as the clock ticks.

Wild searching for head coach and an assistant . . . Robison: Winnipeg scenario was all about facility . . . 20-team KIJHL applies for junior A status

The Wenatchee Wild, the WHL’s newest franchise, is looking for a head coach. Dick and Lisa White operated the Wild as a BCHL franchise for the past eight Wenatcheeseasons, but they now have purchased the Winnipeg Ice and have moved the franchise to the Washington city. . . . The Wild announced on Thursday that Chris Clark, who was the head coach of the BCHL team, will remain with the organization as assistant general manager and associate head coach. He has been with the Wild for all 15 years of its existence. . . . The Wild also is keeping Leigh Mendelson as director of scouting and Jarrod Boman is staying in a hockey operations role. . . . The Wild is looking for an athletic therapist and an equipment manager, with Pepe Sandoval staying on as an assistant to both positions. . . . Mendelson has been with the Wild for six years. His extensive background includes one season (2008-09) as an assistant coach with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs. . . . On Thursday, the Wild posted this on Twitter: “With the news of our staff updates this morning, we are continuing to hunt for the right head coach and an additional assistant coach to lead us into the WHL era. All resumes can be mailed to our general manager at blittler@wenatcheewildhockey.com.

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And so ends, at least for now, the WHL coaching career of James Patrick, who had been the Ice’s head coach for six seasons — two in Cranbrook and four in Winnipeg. . . . The Ice announced on Feb. 10, 2020, that it had agreed to terms with Patrick on a three-year contract extension. That extension expired after the 2022-23 season, and there was speculation that Patrick, 60, wasn’t going to return even if the franchise hadn’t been sold.

No real news emanated from a 28-minute Zoom meeting that featured Ron WHLRobison, the WHL commissioner who is heading into his final season, and some members of the media on Thursday. . . . Asked what the WHL could learn from what happened in Winnipeg where the Ice’s owners weren’t able to build a promised arena, Robison responded: “That scenario was really all about the facility. In our league we have very clear requirements for facility standards and if those standards aren’t met then we have to look at alternate locations. In this particular case, we probably should have had a more firm commitment on the facility as far as construction underway, that type of thing, to make sure that we didn’t encounter the challenges we did. It’s just unfortunate that we didn’t get to a position where we had a facility . . . in Winnipeg to play in because we obviously value that market extremely high, but without that the viability of that franchise in that market just didn’t make sense to us.” . . . The complete session is available on the WHL’s website.

Dogs

The junior B Kootenay International Junior Hockey League has applied to BC kijhlHockey to have its status upgraded to junior A. The league reached the decision at its annual general meeting in Sicamous on Saturday and went public with the move on Thursday. . . . The 20-team KIJHL features 19 teams in B.C., and one, the Spokane Braves, in the U.S. . . . B.C. doesn’t have a junior A league with the decision by the BCHL to operate as an outlaw league — that sounds better than independent, doesn’t it? — outside of Hockey Canada. . . . From a KIJHL news release: “The KIJHL’s application to BC Hockey was submitted after an exhaustive consultation process with the league’s minor hockey partners that resulted in letters of support from all four of the regional minor hockey districts in which KIJHL teams operate, as well as 19 separate minor hockey associations.” . . . Brett Holt of the Columbia Valley Rockets, who is the chairman of the KIJHL’s board, offered: “We’re looking forward to further dialogue with BC Hockey on our application and our desire to further the growth of grassroots junior hockey in our province, and ultimately a vote by their Board.” . . . The KIJHL news release is right here.

Tacos

THE COACHING GAME:

Two former WHL players and coaches have signed on as coaches with NHL teams. . . . Mitch Love, the two-time reigning AHL coach of the year, has joined the Washington Capitals as an assistant coach under freshman head coach Spencer Carberry, while Travis Green is back in the game, this time as an associate coach under head coach Lindy Ruff with the New Jersey Devils. . . . Love played five seasons (1999-05) in the WHL, seeing time with the Moose Jaw Warriors, Swift Current Broncos and Everett Silvertips. He spent seven seasons as an assistant coach with Everett and two seasons as head coach of the Saskatoon Blades before signing with the NHL’s Calgary Flames. He was the head coach of their AHL affiliate — the Stockton Heat in 2021-22 and the Calgary Wranglers in 2022-23 — for the past two seasons and was named the AHL’s coach of the year for both seasons. . . . Green hasn’t coached in the NHL since the Vancouver Canucks fired him as head coach early in the 2021-22 season. He had been with the Canucks since 2017. He played four seasons (1986-90) in the WHL — three-plus with the Spokane Chiefs and 25 games with the Medicine Hat Tigers. He spent three seasons (2010-13) on the coaching staff of the Portland Winterhawks. . . . 

Ken MacKenzie is the new head coach of the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves, taking over from his son, Derek, who has signed on as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Nashville Predators. . . . Derek spent 50 games as the club’s head coach, going 23-20-7, then losing to the eventual champion Peterborough Petes in the first round of the playoffs. . . . Ken had been the Wolves’ assistant general manager. . . . Rick Dorval and Gary Ricciardi will be back as assistant coaches. . . . Ken had stepped in as interim head coach when the Wolves fired head coach Craig Duncanson early last season. Ken coached until Derek was hired as head coach. . . .

The NHL’s Calgary Flames have hired former NHLer Marc Savard as an assistant coach to work alongside freshman head coach Ryan Huska. Savard spent the previous two seasons as head coach of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires.

Unicorn

JUNIOR JOTTINGS:

The 2025 World Junior Championship will be played in Ottawa, running from Dec. 26, 2024 through Jan. 5, 2025. . . . They’ll play 17 games, including the semifinals and bronze and championship games, in the Canadian Tire Centre, home of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators. TD Place, home to the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s, will see 14 games. . . . The 2023 WJC was played in Moncton and Halifax. The 2024 tournament is scheduled for Gothenburg, Sweden, from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. . . .

The Calgary Hitmen have waived 2003-born D Blake Heward, who now is a free agent. Heward had two goals and 10 assists in 41 games with the Hitmen last season. In 103 regular-season games, 23 of those with the Edmonton Oil Kings, he put up four goals and 21 assists. . . . His father, Jamie, is a former WHL player and coach. . . .

Paul Duarte, the owner of the junior B London Nationals of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, has drawn a two-year suspension from Hockey Canada-sanctioned activities following an investigation into accusations of abuse, bullying, harassment and misconduct. According to the London Free Press, the Ontario Hockey Federation began an investigation “for what multiple sources (said) was a bounty allegedly offered for a London player to target a skater on the Komoka Kings in the fall of 2021.” . . . According to the Free Press, “The sources, who spoke to the Free Press on condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisal, said they were told the amount of the bounty was $100.” . . . There’s more on the story right here.

THINKING OUT LOUD: The B.C. Lions went into Winnipeg on Thursday night and absolutely dominated the Blue Bombers, 30-6, and who saw that coming? . . . Winnipeg had lost just two of its previous 21 home games with Zach Collaros at quarterback. . . . The Lions are 3-0 and have allowed only 21 points. Now that’s impressive, especially in the CFL. . . . The next time someone with NHL tries to tell you that “hockey is for everyone” you are free to laugh in their face. The NHL should be embarrassed about its decision to get rid of specialty warmup sweaters, but too many of the old white guys who run that league don’t have a sense of understanding. . . . I’m told that the junior B KIJHL wants to have all of its teams play under a junior A flag in 2023-24, after which it would split into two tiers. After that, perhaps it would run a relegation system just like some international soccer leagues.

Tat

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

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Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

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Or, for more information, visit right here.

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