Have a heart

Chris Kirby is a 34 year old Port Moody resident with a wife and two year old daughter. He’s also a guy that needs a heart…literally. Chris was healthy enough to run a half-marathon two years ago but now can’t lift his daughter, jog or hold a job due to a heart that works at about 20-per-cent capacity. He’s confined to his house while his wife works and his daughter goes to a babysitter which must be more than frustrating for a guy that was physically active just a short time ago.

The problem is that Chris needs a heart transplant but there are just not enough donor hearts available these days. The median wait time for a heart transplant in 2006 was two months, in 2007 three months and in 2008 it was one month. Here in 2009 the wait could be a year or more due to advanced surgical procedures, people taking more care while driving and taking better precautions when riding a bicycle. These all add up to less deaths (a good thing) and fewer organ donors (a bad thing). He remains optimistic that a donor will become available and his life can return to normal in the very near future and I wish him the best.

Chris will join Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and others in a kick-off event by the City of Vancouver and B.C. Transplant to encourage us to become organ donors. The event starts at 10am at City Square Mall located at 555 west 12th Avenue in Vancouver. You can also register your own decision about organ donation on the Organ Donor Registry.