{"id":3781,"date":"2024-12-18T10:24:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T17:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liver.ca\/?p=3781"},"modified":"2025-07-10T12:09:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T18:09:06","slug":"qui-donne-un-morceau-de-foie-a-un-etranger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/who-gives-a-sliver-of-a-liver-to-a-stranger\/","title":{"rendered":"Qui donne un morceau de foie \u00e0 un \u00e9tranger ?"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-story"],"acf":{"title":"","text":"","image":3782,"landing_page":false,"blocks":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":"For families with loved ones in desperate need of\u00a0liver transplants<\/a>, exhaustion and a readiness to give up hope happens all too often. There are not enough livers from living or deceased donors to meet the need. With their options fleeting, it is not uncommon to see families turn to\u00a0social media<\/a>\u00a0in their search for a living liver donor.\r\n\r\nIn fact,\u00a0a 2010 study<\/a>\u00a0found that 11 out of 12 anonymous liver donors first heard of anonymous organ donation via media appeals. These public appeals give a face to the\u00a0more than 400 people<\/a>\u00a0in Canada waiting for a liver transplant.\r\n\r\nThat is why in 2016 when eight-year-old Gianna-Lynn Favilla\u00a0made a public plea for a liver donor<\/a>, Heather Badenoch did not hesitate to apply. Her motivation was that we must do better as a society than merely hoping someone else will swoop in and save the day; action must be taken by ourselves.\r\n
\"A<\/figure>\r\nWhile Gianna went on to receive a successful liver transplant from another living donor, Heather asked to stay in the screening process to give to whichever child needed her liver the most\u2014thus embarking on a two-year journey that would ultimately reshape her life.\r\n\r\nHeather began her journey with the\u00a0University Health Network (UHN) Transplant Team, a group that in 2017 became North America\u2019s largest transplant centre. They have performed\u00a0more than 700 living liver donor transplants since 1999.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy save the life of a stranger?\u201d Heather asked rhetorically during a\u00a0series of tweets<\/a>\u00a0published in late May 2018. \u201cFor a family out there, this is their child\u2014and this child needed this piece of liver more than I did.\u201d\r\n
\"Heather,
Heather and her husband Paul at the Give Gala in Ottawa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\nBecoming a living liver donor to a stranger<\/a>\u00a0is a meticulous process with many precautions taken by the transplant team. The journey involves\u00a0physical testing<\/a>\u00a0(CT scans, MRI\u2019s, blood tests, ECG and x-rays) and a psychological evaluation to ensure that, for example, the decision to donate is not impulsive or the result of pressure by another party.\r\n\r\n\u201cBefore I ever filled out a form, [the living liver donor website] had so many pages on the process, the surgery, and the possible complications. All ready for me to read,\u201d says Heather during a conversation with Liver Canada. \u201cI met with four surgeons who spent the time talking with me, advising me and making sure I understood the decision to give\u2014it\u2019s really something.\u201d\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, not all of those who apply to be a living donor are deemed a suitable fit for transplantation. Transplant centres review a plethora of detailed criteria in order to match donors with recipients, including (but not limited to) the compatible liver size and blood type.\r\n
Anonymous liver donors meet with a team of specialists and doctors who ensure, amongst other things, they understand the risks and complications possible in any transplant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\nHeather happily passed all the necessary testing and was matched with her first potential recipient in 2016. Shortly after a transplant surgery date was set, however; her anonymous recipient became too ill. The transplant team was first forced to postpone the surgery and, ultimately, cancel it all together.\r\n\r\nKeeping the anonymity of the recipient, the only explanation Heather received from the transplant team was that the transplant was \u2018no longer foreseeable\u2019.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was a sad time,\u201d says Heather. \u201cEven though this child and their family were strangers, it was heartbreaking we\u2019d come close to saving his or her life, but the chance slipped away\u201d.\r\n\r\nUnderstandably, Heather decided to take a break from becoming a living donor during this emotional time. She picked the matching process back up the following year and her goal was achieved once again; she had a new match and her surgery was set.\r\n\r\nHeather successfully donated 30% of her liver to a child during a transplant surgery between\u00a0Toronto General Hospital (TGH)\u00a0and\u00a0SickKids.<\/a>\u00a0Aside from being told that the surgery was successful and the recipient was doing well, she will not ever receive any more information on the child whose life she saved. The only correspondence they will have is a one-time anonymous letter sent through the transplant office.\r\n
A portion of Heather\u2019s liver in transit from Toronto General Hospital to SickKids.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\nHeather spent a week recovering in hospital. She made incredible progress in recovery, easing back to her consulting business 11 days post-surgery. Her liver would go on to successfully regenerate to its normal size within a few months.\r\n\r\n\u201cI haven\u2019t found the words yet to describe the emotional high I\u2019ve been on in the months following surgery,\u201d says Heather. \u201cI find myself thinking about the child all the time and thinking about what milestones they will be able to achieve over the years of their life.\u201d\r\n
\"Heather
Heather out for her first walk, three days post-surgery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\nNow back to her regular routine, Heather is left with a four-inch scar which she says, \u201cprovides perspective\u201d and is a \u201creminder of what matters\u201d in her series of tweets. Aside from not sweating the little things, Heather is as clear as ever about what she wants any reader to take from her story.\r\n\r\n\u201cFor all those (at least\u00a0in Ontario<\/a>), flip your health card over and check if it has the word \u2018donor\u2019 on it,\u201d says Heather.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf it doesn\u2019t\u00a0go online and register<\/a>. Now that you know what it means to be a living donor, give it some serious thought! Think about if you can be the reason someone gets to be taken off the waiting list\u201d.\r\n
\"Daljit
Heather and Daljit Nagpal, a long-time volunteer at Liver Canada\u2019s Ottawa chapter, at the 2018 Ottawa Stroll for Liver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\nIf by reading this, you thought this marked the end of Heather\u2019s living organ donor journey\u2014you may want to guess again.\r\n\r\n\u201cI plan to do it again,\u201d says Heather. \u201cA family member has Lupus and could need a kidney\u2014it\u2019s here whenever she needs it\u201d.","remove_heading_underline":false}],"tldr":"","story":"","bg_colour":"none","story_pretitle":"","story_title":"","story_text":"","story_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3781"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5064,"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions\/5064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liver.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}