Manitoba lights up call to join organ donation list

 

AFTER being told she’d likely never walk, talk or see again, after suffering a blood clot in her heart and seven strokes, Kristin Millar walked down the stairs Monday.

She looked the assembled reporters in the eye and said she’s having an incredible life, sharing the kindness she received in the form of a heart transplant.

"The fact that I’m here talking to you — that I’m able to exist — is one of the most remarkable miracles I think anyone could ever see," Millar said at the Manitoba Legislative Building, where she issued an appeal to the public to register online (signupforlife.ca) to donate organs and tissues.

The province aims to sign up 10,000 new organ and tissue donors online in 2022, and will be lighting up the legislative building at night with the Sign Up for Life campaign logo Monday and tonight, Health Minister Audrey Gordon said at the media event to raise awareness of National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week.

Since the online campaign began 10 years ago, Manitoba has registered 60,000 organ and tissue donors. Millar said she attended its launch just a few months after her heart transplant.

"My greatest hopes, my greatest dreams could never have prepared me for the incredible life that this heart has given me for the last 10 years," said Millar, who was 26 when she went into unexpected heart failure.

"I was very sick. I couldn’t keep any food down and was crawling up the stairs to my apartment."

When her heart stopped at St. Boniface Hospital, doctors discovered blood pooling and a tablespoon-size blood clot. Millar suffered seven strokes.

"The neurologist told my family I likely wouldn’t be able to walk, talk or see," she said. She spent two years on a waiting list for a heart transplant before receiving the call that a match was found.

She went back to school at 30 to get a social work degree and worked with newcomer students. During the pandemic, she’s worked with vulnerable and youth and families at Seven Oaks School Division "to see their own strengths," while she pursues a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy.

"I wanted to give back some of the empathy and kindness I’d received."

Aside from the freedom and joy of being healthy, Millar said she’s received many other gifts — and they’re all because of the selflessness and courage of her donor family "at the worst moment of their life."

"I love them and care for them," said Millar, who has connected with them over the last two years.

"We have a bond that will never go away. I’ve learned from them that organ donation has also been a gift to them. It has been a powerful tool in their own grief. I keep their mom and their daughter alive, while they’re keeping me alive."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca