April's Interview: Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness

Transcript of the interview:

Ishika: Hi, my name is Ishika and today we will be speaking with someone who has a relative who has experience with receiving/donating an organ/tissue. Hi! 

Anon: Hi.  

Ishika: Did your relative receive/donate an organ/tissue? 

Anon: Uh, yeah. So they received a kidney transplant because they have diabetes. Before that they were on [inaudible]. And then, they had to be sent to the hospital and then they- the doctor said that they needed to have a kidney transplant. And so they're in the hospital. They got tests and everything, and it took a while to find, like, a kidney that was right for him, but he finally found one, and he had his transplant.

Ishika: That’s really good. When did this transplant surgery take place?  

Anon: It was a couple years ago. So, I'm not really sure the specific year? But it was, well he- he came to Canada and then a few years after that, that happened and then he had to get the transplant. So I think like about around like five years ago.  

Ishika: Um, and you already kind of touched on this a bit, but how long did it take approximately for them to get the match? 

Anon: Get the match? I want to say it was like a couple months to like a year. It took a while to get the kidney transplant. I remember one time, on the radio they were talking about like- like a campaign, some sort of like hospital was doing and they said that they have like a kidney transplant available and then,  I accidentally turned off the radio and like I went to another channel and my mom got so upset that because she was like, that could have been like a kidney transplant for them. And like I didn't even realize they were talking about that. I didn't know it was that big of a deal. But yeah, it-it did take a little bit of a while, but he ended up getting that transplant.  

Ishika: What impact did the surgery have on their life?

Anon: They had to stay in the hospital for a while after that event. I want to say like maybe up to like a month and then go inside to walk with a cane for a while as well. And- um-  they were sitting a lot, like laying down in bed a lot. And then like slowly they started walking. Now they even like drive everywhere and they also go on walks with their family. So yeah, it definitely takes a bit of a toll because it is such like a big surgery, but it takes a while to recover. But they had like a lot of help from us and then also the hospital as well. 

Ishika: Alright, that's lovely. Why do you think personally it is important to donate? 

Anon: I think it's important to donate because you really like, never know who could be a transplant because you can't see it like physically like who is disabled or who has, like it's like illness, you can't see it physically so you can't just assume like someone will or won't need a transplant. So that's so important to talk about why it's so important and so important that we're doing this right now because again, like you never know and you never know if it could happen to you or like someone that you love as well. You know, sometimes- we got really lucky. My relative got a kidney transplant in time. It was successful and they're good now, but sometimes they can get a lot more severe than that. So you really never know, like the risks and you never know what it could lead to. So, it’s always important to get diagnosed, always important to get regular checkups and always important to raise awareness about this kind of stuff. 

Ishika: Yeah, for sure. I agree. Thank you so much for doing this interview with us!

Anon: Yeah, of course.