Ralph Harris. (submitted photo/Matt Harris)

By Nigel Maxwell

Medical marvels

‘My family will never receive a greater gift’: local man receives double lung transplant

Sep 23, 2020 | 5:00 PM

Shellbrook’s Ralph Harris is recovering in an Edmonton hospital after receiving a double lung transplant this week. He’s been waiting for four years.

In 2016, Harris was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that two years earlier claimed the life of his sister Karen. Harris’s son Matt told paNOW his 58-year-old father received word last weekend there was a possible match, and on Monday he received the operation.

“The last couple days have been such a roller coaster and then to actually get the doctors to come in and get the call and say there’s a match, you’re really in disbelief,” Matt said.

Matt said his dad is doing well, and his vitals are stable, but there has been one hiccup. The lungs were a little big for Harris’s chest cavity, and so doctors have kept the chest open for observation, while Harris remains sedated.

In February 2014, Harris’s sister Karen Pilon was on life support in an Edmonton hospital. At that time she was also put onto the transplant list. She never received her new lungs; Karen died on March 25, 2014.

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Thanks to an anonymous donor, Ralph Harris has received a second lease on life. (Submitted photo/ Matt Harris)

The Karen Pilon Organ Donor Awareness Foundation was created soon after to make people aware of the need for organs, and has also been posting stories from donors, organ recipients, and people waiting on the transplant list on their Facebook page. Four years later, it’s possible those efforts helped save Ralph Harris’s life.

“The whole family has been on the other side of the coin, and to be actually on the other end of it is amazing,” Matt said.

Going forward, Matt said he now hopes his dad’s story will encourage other people to consider becoming an organ donor.

“Whoever the person was who gave my father their lungs is a hero. My family will never receive a greater gift,” he said.

And as of 8 a.m. on Sept. 23, there are 9,526 individuals registered in the Provincial Organ and Tissue Donor Registry.

For 2019-2020, Saskatchewan saw the highest number of donations in a single year with 18 reported deceased donors (15.2 donations per million population).

In an effort to attract more donors, the provincial government has implemented donation coordinators in Regina and Saskatoon, and has also launched an online tissue and organ registry.

According to a statement from the ministry, there are over 4,300 people waiting for an organ transplant in Canada. Of these patients, the majority are waiting for a kidney transplant.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell