Liam Ball is an active three-year-old boy who likes to make a lot of noise while he's playing and is determined to convince his mom Kim that it's okay to have chocolate for a mid-morning snack.
What makes moments like that extra-special is that on March 8, Liam received a kidney from his dad Rob and six weeks post-operation, Kim says both are doing great.
"No more machines going off in the night and Liam's full of energy," she said. "He didn't really lack energy before, most dialysis patients are pretty worn out so now we have a supercharged toddler running around."
April is Organ Donation Awareness Month with March 24-30 being National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week. Ball is sharing her family's story in the hope that more people will sign up to become organ and tissue donors.
BECOMING ORGAN DONOR
Joyce Van Deurzen is the executive director at the Kidney Foundation of Canada, southern Alberta and Saskatchewan branch. She says over 90 per cent of Canadians said that they would be willing to become an organ donor but fewer than half have taken positive action to do that.
"They could make a gift either upon their death or they could consider becoming a living donor and donate one of their kidneys to someone who needs it," said Van Deurzen. "What a miracle right, when do we get a chance to ever do something like that that can benefit someone and in such an amazing way."
Liam was born with underdeveloped kidneys and has been in and out of hospital since birth for multiple surgeries. He was on dialysis for 12 hours a day and after receiving a kidney from his dad he has more freedom and a better quality of life ahead of him.
"We're striving towards pre-school and September is our big goal," said Ball. "He needs to get out and interact with other kids so between his kidney health and COVID, he's really hasn't had the social interactions that a typical toddler would go through."
WON'T LAST FOREVER
While he's on a number of medications now for his new kidney, the organ won't last forever.
"That kidney will last him hopefully 25 years at best and then if we can continue to improve medications and treatments may be longer," said Ball. "But he most likely will require one to two more transplants through his lifetime."
According to The Kidney Foundation of Canada, organ donation registration is down 39 per cent during the pandemic and there are 4,400 Canadians waiting for an organ transplant. The foundation says on average 250 people in Canada die annually because they aren’t able to get the life-saving organ they need. Van Deurzen says the waiting list never stops growing.
"We really want to get the message out to people to talk to their families about organ donation," said Van Deurzen. "Think about it, consider your own wishes and then tell your family what your wishes are and then take the next step and go ahead and register to be an organ donor."
Ball says Liam is immunocompromised and she still has to watch out for him around others but hopes a family trip is in the future.
"We're hoping that next spring we can go on a vacation if COVID dies down," she said. "Liam hasn't ever been swimming with his siblings so that's on his to-do list this summer, he wants to get in the water with his siblings."
Learn more about becoming an organ donor here: https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Pages/OTDRHome.aspx
