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At the beginning of the night you might remember I mentioned some statistics, we had quite
a few numbers and from the 309 Australian donors last year there were 931 recipients
and actually there were 978 organs donated but 931 recipients.
It's my great pleasure to introduce Sam MacDonald to the stage.
Sam is an organ donor recipient, sorry an organ recipient and she's here to step through
with us some of her stories so welcome Sam.
Thank you.
Sam, just to start off can you tell us about your situation?
I guess my situation in a nutshell is 13 years ago when I was 25 I received a double lung
transplant for a condition called cystic fibrosis and just as a bit of a background to that
condition cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease in which the sticky mucus affects a whole
range of different organs in the body but particularly the lungs and digestive system
and in the lungs that mucus helps to trap bacteria and is a great environment for them to breed
and that results in lots of chest infections and blockages that cause irreversible lung
damage.
There's no cure for CF so when the lung damage becomes too severe the only treatment option
at that point to survive is a lung transplant.
So you lived with that for 25 years before this became an option.
And Sam what did the transplant mean for you?
At a very basic level having the transplant meant being able to live but beyond that and
more importantly for me having the transplant gave me a chance to experience a relatively
normal healthy and independent lifestyle.
And can you tell us how your life changed?
Can we ask you about before and about after perhaps the comparison we can talk through
that?
Yeah.
So before transplant essentially my whole life revolved around managing my cystic fibrosis
and that involved intensive daily treatments at home including things like chest physiotherapy
to help get rid of the buildup of mucus in the lungs and I also need to take a whole
heap of medications including antibiotics to help with chest infections again and a range
of different nebulised medications to help clear and open the airway so that I could
breathe.
So were you in and out of hospital a lot?
Yeah and that's the other thing even with those treatments I would still need to go
into hospital quite regularly for periods of two weeks at a time for intravenous antibiotic
therapy and I would say in the period leading up to transplant I would spend probably a
total of about three months of every year in hospital at that point.
And despite all that my lung function continued to get worse to the point where before transplant
I needed to move back home with my parents because I wasn't able to manage everyday
tasks things like showering without assistance anymore.
At that point I was on oxygen and could probably only walk about 15 to 20 metres before I would
need to stop to rest to catch my breath.
So certainly not able to go to work or studying or anything like that?
Certainly none of that, I felt like I had a very poor quality of life.
The difference obviously after transplant was the difference between night and day really.
Most importantly was about the fantastic quality of life that I've had since transplant and
that's given me the opportunity really to realise a number of goals and ambitions including
things like being able to work, to pay taxes, I feel like I'm contributing to society in
some sort of meaningful way.
Chance to study, go to university and do some science degree and must as a social work.
Being able to travel overseas in particular because I was never well enough to do that
beforehand.
But most importantly of all that I've had an extra 13 years that I've been able to spend
with my family and friends and 12 of those years with my wonderful partner.
And Sam how did you feel about someone needing to die for you to receive your lungs?
From my personal perspective and also from talking to other transplant recipients I
think feeling a sense of guilt is something that people who have been organ recipients
commonly experience and I think the reason for that is quite evident that when a person
is on the transplant waiting list we're obviously hoping that the transplant will become available
in time to save our lives.
But there's that knowledge that in order for that process to happen that someone will die
in order to donate those organs and so there's that sense that as a recipient we're in some
way benefiting from another person's tragedy.
It's something that I've thought about and for me what I find helpful in terms of thinking
about it is that for me the two situations are very separate from one another.
So the organ donation and the transplant process are very separate in that yes someone did
die for me to receive their lungs but my needing or wishing for a transplant did not in any
way cause that tragic accident or situation or didn't lead to their death in any way.
What I also find helpful is the knowledge that the donor themselves or their family
made that decision to be an organ donor and they did that knowing that this was a worthwhile
thing and that by doing so they could save people's lives.
So it was absolutely their intention and I think also that that decision to donate can
be the one positive thing that can come out of a situation that for the family members
is really tragic and heartbreaking.
And for me personally I think that if the best way that I can honour my organ donor
and show my appreciation of the gift that I've been given is just to live the best life
that I can and if I do that then there's no reason to have any sort of feeling of guilt
about that.
Sam, thank you.
I think that's given a whole new perspective in your time.
So thank you, Sam, for telling us a story.
Thank you.
Thank you.
