Current23:07 Order of Canada honorees emphasize importance of organ donation
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After Simon Keith received a heart transplant in the 1980s, he went on to have a successful career as a professional footballer, something unheard of at the time.
He has now been appointed to the Order of Canada for his charity work helping other young transplant patients to embrace healthy, active and fulfilling lives.
“Once you’re transplanted, it’s the celebration, this rebirth and this new life. And then … you’re sitting in your living room and you’re like, ‘Holy cow, what are we going to do now?'” said Keith, who was among 99 new appointments announced by Gov. General Mary Simon last week.
“My job is to say, let’s party, what do you want to do? Do you want to swim, do you want to play the drums, do you want to go hiking? Let’s do this,” he said The Current’s Matt Galloway.
The former athlete founded the Simon Keith Foundation in 2012 to advocate for organ donation and provide financial support to young organ transplant recipients. Keith said he often meets parents who wonder how active their children can be after a transplant — and are amazed at the quality of life that can be achieved safely.
The way to say thank you … is to live a life of passion and purpose – Simon Keith
He said recipients and their families always tell him, “Oh my God, Simon. I didn’t know we could do that. I didn’t know we could live this long. I didn’t know we could be so active,'” he said.
“It’s really life-changing.”
According to the most recent data available from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2,782 organ transplants were performed in Canada in 2021. On December 31 of that year, 4,043 Canadians were on transplant waiting lists. This roughly means that for every two transplants performed, three more patients were waiting their turn.
Return to the field
Born in England and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Keith signed a professional football contract right out of high school, but contracted a virus that damaged his heart in his early 20s. At 21, months before he hoped to line up for Canada at the 1986 World Cup, he was told he would need a heart transplant.
While he missed the tournament, the surgery was a success. He was determined to get back into the game, but said he didn’t get much support for the idea. Looking back, he understands the skepticism and believes his youth and “naivety” helped him get back on the field.
“Persistence and desire are strong partners in this kind of journey,” he said.
According to data from 2021, for every two transplants completed, three more patients were waiting their turn. (MAD.vertise/Shutterstock)
As he got his career back on track, Keith stopped talking about his heart transplant because of the media fixation on his surgery.
“It didn’t matter if I played well, if I played bad … I was the ‘Heart Guy,'” he recalled.
That changed after a trip in 2011 to meet his donor’s family, who he described as the “real heroes” of his story. The meeting prompted him to create his foundation.
“Not everyone is cut out to be an advocate right out of the gate, and everyone has to forge their own path,” he said.
After 32 years with a heart transplant, Keith underwent a second successful operation, this time a heart and kidney transplant, in March 2019.
He said he felt both happy and grateful to once again be the recipient of the family’s “brave decision”.
“The way to say thank you for this whole thing, to the doctors, to the caregivers, to the donors, to the families of the donors, etc., is to live a life of passion and purpose,” he said.
“It is our duty as grateful recipients; that’s our job.”
The former footballer founded the Simon Keith Foundation in 2012 to advocate for organ donation and provide financial support to young organ transplant recipients. (Submitted by Simon Keith)
“At the Crossroads of Life and Death”
Organ transplantation is a miracle of medicine that occurs “right at the intersection of life and death,” said Dr. Lori West, a pediatric transplant cardiologist in Edmonton and scientific director of the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program.
West was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2020 for her leadership in transplantation and organ donation and her groundbreaking research in infant heart transplantation. Due to the pandemic, her institution was postponed until last month.
When she was training as a cardiologist in the late 1980s, there were very limited options for babies with major heart malformations. There was some hope on the horizon in the advances made in transplant medicine, but a large number of babies died waiting for a suitable donor.
“It really was a death sentence for these families of babies born with these difficult problems,” she said.
Dr. Laurie West was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2020 for her leadership in the field of transplantation and organ donation. (Submitted by Lori West)
In the 1990s, West’s research led to something that changed that.
She realized that the baby’s immune system was flexible enough that it could not reject a transplanted organ based on blood type compatibility. (In adults, blood type is one of the factors that determine whether the donor and recipient are a match).
Without the need for blood group compatibility, the chance of matching patients and donors would increase significantly, she argued.
“The first baby to receive an intentional blood type mismatched heart transplant in the world was on Valentine’s Day in 1996 and it was a complete success,” she said.
“This approach is now used worldwide and has resulted in many more babies being transplanted than could have been before.”
WATCH | Transplant was a scary word until I gave my brother a kidney:
Transplant was a scary word until I gave my brother a kidney
Most people don’t think about living organ donation until it hits home. That’s exactly what happened to CBC’s Ioana Roumeliotis when her brother suddenly needed a kidney transplant. She tells her family’s story of what it’s like to give and receive a life-saving organ.
Donor families can feel ‘long-lasting comfort’
West sometimes receives letters from patients, including this first baby, who is now in his late 20s.
“[He sent it] a few years ago on Valentine’s Day, the anniversary of his transplant, said, “Thank you. I thought this was a good time to reach out and say thank you for my life,” she said.
“You stop and think this is making a huge difference in people’s lives.”
West said if someone wants to become a donor, the most important thing is to talk to their family.
“It can have a huge impact because you’ve told your family that it’s important for you to be involved in organ donation if something happens,” she said.
Families of the deceased can also feel “long-lasting comfort,” she said.
“I am thinking of a particular person whose child unfortunately died and became an organ donor. She says, “It’s a lifesaver for me every day to know about my child’s contribution.”
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