Have a spare kidney you’re willing to part with? One Tavistock resident wants to know

Michael Fine sits outside Stratford General Hospital. Fine is nearing the time when he will need a kidney transplant, and with a long wait ahead of him, is looking for donors.

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

About a decade ago, Michael Fine was dealing with a bad bout of food poisoning that took a turn for the worst – though he didn’t know just how bad a turn it was at the time.

“I thought I had flu, and thought, ‘Oh, you know, I’ll get better,’” Fine told the Times. “It was getting worse and worse and worse. I lost 23 pounds in 11 days. I was admitted to hospital and found out that I was in this acute renal failure, and I was close to death. I had no idea. … It felt like somebody was punching me full stop, 24/7, in the stomach.”

After being admitted to hospital and gradually getting better, Fine continued to have bouts over the years, eventually coming to find he developed early stages of kidney disease as a result of his diabetes. It has progressed over the years to the point where now he needs a transplant or will need a transplant shortly.

The problem is that the wait time for a kidney from a deceased donor can take three to six years.

According to the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), where Fine has been receiving care, kidney disease affects more than 40,000 people in Canada. Symptoms include, but are not limited to, fatigue, a bad taste in the mouth, loss of appetite, weakness and difficulty concentrating. While kidney transplants are not the only treatment, it is a prevalent one for the LHSC. In a regional program that serves a population of 1.7 million people, from Sault Ste. Marie to Windsor, 70 kidney transplants occur each year.

Fine’s doctors urged him to start looking for a living kidney donor right away. Kidneys from living donors have become increasingly important for treating end-stage kidney disease, according to the LHSC. Not only do they have higher success rates, but they also ensure that more patients can access some form of transplant. It would also significantly shorten Fine’s timeline.

“… If I were to find a living donor today, that speeds everything up,” Fine said. “And I could get a transplant six months to a year, approximately. But if I wait to get sick enough to go through dialysis and then be eligible for a deceased donor, it could be a year, nine months on average, for my blood type, to wait.”

As noted by the LHSC, the donor's blood type must be compatible with the recipient's blood type. Before donating, the potential donor must undergo an assessment, which usually takes about three to six months for all the test results to become available. Because there is the potential risk of disease transmission from the donor to the recipient, the assessment includes a detailed questionnaire, medical history, physicial exam and blood tests.

Fine is also taking tests in preparation for an eventual surgery. For the last year he has been going through what's called kidney transplant workup: a series of tests, CAT scans, chest X-rays, echocardiograms and blood work to prepare him and his doctors for his eventual surgery. After such an exhaustive process, Fine said he had to “hurry up and wait” as the transplant team reviews all that information.

“You just never know when someone will come forward,” Fine said. “I heard stories of people being in a restaurant and a waitress overheard a conversation. One day, I was in my apartment building and one of my neighbours asked how I was doing. I said, ‘You know, other than I need a kidney, going okay.’ And she said, ‘Well, you can have mine.’ I thought she was joking, and she was serious. Unfortunately, she wasn't healthy enough. She went through the screening process, but she wasn't healthy enough, so the search continues.

“... There are so many people that are so far worse off than me, and eventually this will play out, and I'm optimistic that I'll get a kidney one way or the other,” Fine said. “… But it's complicated, it's like layers of an onion keep getting revealed to me, little bits of information. The doctors are terrific. My family doctors, I have two family doctors, my nephrologist, the kidney doctor, is amazing. But you know the information comes so slowly, and you have to be very proactive and promote yourself and ask a lot of questions.”

Throughout this process, Fine said the logistics have been the biggest issue. As a Tavistock resident, he has been having to get treatment in London, a long way away for someone who is dealing with fatigue and other related health issues. Health-care accessibility, he said, is much different in a rural area compared to when he lived in Toronto.

“I'm hopeful that I'll find a donor,” Fine said. “That would be the best thing, best possible outcome, and that would certainly raise my spirits. I try not to look at the long range too much and sort of focus on the interim.”

Anyone interested in inquiring about donating to Fine can reach him at mhf.kidneydonor@gmail.com.