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West Carleton Review
October 20, 2016 l 60 pages
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The gift of life: from one good friend to another BY KELLY MCCARTHY
kmccarthy@metroland.com
For Carp resident Kathy Craig, receiving a liver transplant was not an option. She needed one to turn her health around after suffering from an autoimmune condition for several years – and possibly to save her life. But for Jennifer Bonaparte, donating her liver was never about “giving the gift of life,” she said – it was simply about helping a friend. “My family and my friends, I think about them as being the same,” Bonaparte said. “I would do anything for any of them.” Bonaparte and Craig, residents of Carp, have known each other for a few years. They met through mutual friends and the pair, along with Bonaparte’s husband John Barber, formed a quick bond. “Both John and Jen are the type of people who just embrace you,” Craig said. “They’ve been with me every step of the way.” Bonaparte underwent the procedure to donate 70 per cent of her own liver at the Toronto
SUBMITTED
Carp residents Kathy Craig (left) and Jennifer Bonaparte (right) recently underwent a true test of friendship when Bonaparte donated her liver to change Craig’s life. General Hospital on July 21. Her donation made it possible to replace Craig’s failing liver, improving her overall health. For Craig, the procedure was life changing, but for Bonaparte it was nothing more than a favour for a friend. “The time that it took out of
my life was nothing compared to the increase in Kathy’s life,” she said. FRIEND IN NEED
Craig was diagnosed with a genetic condition and an autoimmune disease in 1999 by
her own doctor in Arnprior. Her conditions cause cirrhosis, which sees high blood pressure in the veins that carry blood from the intestines to the liver. She’s been closely monitored since then, but she showed few ill effects until recently. Craig experienced her first
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episode of variceal bleeding – a common complication in people with cirrhosis that causes enlarged veins that can rupture and bleed when there is a blocked blood flow to the liver – in 2010. From there, Craig’s health started to deteriorate. “I was steady for years until then,” Craig said of her health. “But that was kind of the beginning of the downslide.” In September of 2015, Craig became infected with listeria and spent six weeks at the Queensway Carleton Hospital recovering. “Really I was never the same after that,” Craig said. Her autoimmune condition makes it easier for Craig to fall ill, and harder to recover from even a common cold, let alone something as serious as listeria. “That really put me in a vulnerable state.” It was decided soon after that Craig would need a liver transplant. “The thing with a liver transplant is that you can’t be too sick and you can’t be too well,” she said. “You have to be the right amount of sick or they won’t do it.” In the spring of 2016, Craig
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A PERFECT MATCH
Craig said she is grateful to be blessed with such generous family and friends. No fewer than five people rushed to line up to offer up their own livers for donation to Craig. Her friend Debbie, her brother Jeff and her three adult daughters – Jennifer, Stephanie and Andrea – all were willing to do what it took to help. Craig, understandably, was touched. “It’s hard to put myself in the mindset of someone who would be so giving,” she said. “It’s absolutely amazing to me.” There was only one problem: finding a perfect match for donation is difficult to do. None of the original five willing people turned out to be the right candidate to donate to Craig. But hope was not lost. It was at dinner at the Cheshire Cat one evening that the conversation turned to Craig’s search for a liver donor. See CARP RESIDENT, page 7
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found out that she qualified for a transplant. Now, all she needed was a donor.
www.gironeslaw.com agirones@gironeslaw.com