Come August, it will be 20 years since Prince George’s Joyce Grantham received a heart transplant.
In 1996, Grantham was diagnosed with Cardiomyopathy, a disease that causes scar tissue and other complications on the heart muscles.
It took until April of 1999 for Grantham before the hospital determined that there was nothing else they could do for Grantham, ultimately resulting in her being chosen to receive a heart transplant. She was then on the list for four months before she was able to receive a new heart, something doctors thought they wouldn’t be able to get in time.
“I was really very fortunate,” Grantham told MyPGNow. “I went downhill very, very rapidly.”
She said she got the call on her provided beeper and was quickly flown down to Vancouver by an air ambulance.
While Grantham is nearing a milestone year since receiving her transplant, the Province recently celebrated its 5,000th person alive today because of an organ transplant.
“The success of organ transplant is a transformative feat of expertise, coordination, and caring through the province, in every health authority,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. “Even though we have 28 per cent of British Columbians registered in the Organ Donor Registry, we still have over 700 British Columbians waiting for an organ transplant. In 2018, 27 people died waiting. We need more people to register, to help save those who are waiting.”
In the situation of Joyce’s, her life has been expanded 20 years because one individual chose to donate their heart. Joyce put it quite simply when asked how her life has been since receiving her transplant.
“Wonderful. I’ve been able to watch my grandkids grown up from being babies to university, to getting married, we’ve had our first great-grandchild. You can’t beat it. I don’t even know how you thank people for that. It’s just a wonderful gift.”
The 78-year-old says becoming a donor is perhaps the greatest contribution you could make.
“It’s the best gift you could ever give anybody,” she said. “When I look back, there’s just so many things that have happened in my life since then that I would have never been around to participate in. I got to see my family grow up, I’ve been married 57 years, that would have never happened. It’s just a wonderful gift, just an absolutely wonderful gift.”
Today, Grantham regularly volunteers at Kordyban Lodge, the cancer lodge in Prince George.
These milestones come as BC Transplant celebrates 50 years of organ donation and transplant, and demonstrates how far patient care has advanced in the province.
Anyone who might be interested in putting their name on the Organ Donor Registry can do so at the BC Transplant website.
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