Heather Latter
Nathan DeGagne spent last weekend pushing his daughter on a swing and playing catch with his son.
And it’s all thanks to an organ donor.
The 33-year-old Fort Frances resident received a new heart in August after being on the transplant list for 15 months.
“Without an organ donor, this wasn’t possible,” DeGagne stressed, noting he’s now urging everyone to become an organ donor.
“Sign your donor card, register, talk with your family about your intentions,” he remarked.
“Those are the key things that have to happen.”
DeGagne said even if you sign your donor card or register, a family member could say no to donating your organs if they don’t know what you want.
With April being National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Month, DeGagne said he couldn’t let the month pass without sharing his story.
“Lots of people in their lifetime will need some sort of transplant, so we just need to get enough donors to sign their cards,” he explained.
The Trillium Gift of Life Network reports more than 85 percent of Ontarians are in favour of organ donation, but only one-in-four Ontarians have registered their consent to donate.
“It only takes two minutes to register,” noted DeGagne’s wife, Sarah, who has been by her husband’s side through the whole ordeal.
“No one should have to wait 18 months on a transplant list,” she added.
“That’s too long.”
“There are people who wait even longer because they are waiting for the right match,” echoed DeGagne, noting with more donors, the likelihood of a match would increase.
The couple is urging people to visit beadonor.ca, where you can register to become an organ donor—or even check or update your consent.
“All you need is your health card,” Sarah DeGagne said, noting one organ donor can save eight lives.
DeGagne said it’s unfortunate that it is an opt-in program instead of an opt-out thing.
“I’m hoping that is something that will change in the future,” he remarked.
DeGagne noted he has experienced first-hand people not “opting in” to be a donor.
“Standing in line [at MTO or Service Ontario], and the person ahead of you gets asked if they want to sign their donor card and they say ‘no,’” he said.
“It’s like a stab in the heart,” Sarah DeGagne said.
“I think you would get a lot more people if they had to opt-out instead of opt-in,” Nathan DeGagne added, saying he’s always been an organ donor himself.
And so has his wife.
“I never gave it a second thought,” she said. “And now it’s something that our life revolves around.”
DeGagne was diagnosed with a serious heart virus as a teenager and in the spring of 2013, it was determined he needed a heart transplant.
Needing to be close to the hospital, the couple moved to Winnipeg while they wanted for a new heart.
They got the call 15 months later and DeGagne was flown to Ottawa for the surgery.
He remained there for several weeks afterwards, then stayed in a Winnipeg hospital for a few more weeks before being discharged.
But again, they remained in Winnipeg until January to be near the hospital in case any complications arose.
“I had a bit of infection in my sternum, so we had to have daily IV treatments and they wanted to keep me in Winnipeg to make sure it was going properly, so that’s what we did,” DeGagne recalled.
His wife was his IV nurse for a solid three months.
“It’s something most couples probably don’t think about—having to do that much care-giving, especially this early in our lives,” he said.
“My caregiver role doesn’t ever end,” Sarah DeGagne conceded.
“Most people that have a transplant have a caregiver like Sarah,” Nathan DeGagne said.
“It’s not just the one person it affects—it affects families.”
But now at eight months post-transplant, DeGagne is doing well.
“I’m trying to get back to doing normal activities as much as possible,” he remarked. “It’s a dramatic improvement from a year ago at this time.”
A year ago, he couldn’t go outside and spend time with his family.
“It was just too much,” he recalled. “Now it feels really good to be doing simple things like playing catch with my son and pushing my daughter on the swing. . . .
“To other people it’s normal but for me, it’s pretty great.”
“Everything is more beautiful than it was before,” Sarah DeGagne said about life since her husband’s heart transplant.
“And more exciting and happier,” she added. “We appreciate the tiny moments so much.”
Nathan DeGagne is very grateful to the organ donor who saved his life—although they know very little about the person.
“They don’t share information,” he explained, noting his heart came from a male in late 20s.
“We don’t know much more than that.”
“I’m desperate to find out,” said Sarah DeGagne, though adding there is a family out there that is still grieving.
She said they wrote a letter to the family to express their gratitude, which was submitted through their transplant co-ordinator.
“It’s up to them now to initiate anything,” she remarked, noting they just wanted that family to know how thankful they are for their gift of life.
“We owe being able to come home to them,” she voiced. “They are like another family to us now.
“And we’re just so grateful to them,” she added. “I can’t put it into words.”
She admitted it took six months to write that letter.
“I hope they find comfort in knowing that we’re going to take care of it,” she said.
The DeGagne family also is thankful to the local community for all their support.
“We’re going to find a way to repay the community who helped us so much,” Sarah DeGagne vowed.
“That’s what great about Fort Frances. It really made me love this place.”
