Lethbridge man on the hunt for living organ donor

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on April 27, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

This week is National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week and a Lethbridge resident is in need of a living donor who will be willing to share a kidney with him.
Provincially, AHS transplant teams performed 404 organ and tissue transplants last year, compared to 395 transplants in 2020 and 433 in 2019. There were 312 people on the organ donation waitlist last year; 50 of whom died before a suitable organ became available.  
Born and raised Lethbridge resident Rick Stedman began dialysis in December 2021, at the Dialysis Center located at the Chinook Regional Hospital. And even though he is grateful for the opportunity of having the treatment and he is a very positive person, he said it is not always easy.
“I almost feel like I’m less than someone else, with a tube under my skin to my heart and a long catheter coming out of the right part of my chest where they connect and disconnect me to the dialysis machine,” said Stedman.
After experiencing high blood pressure for around a decade, his doctor sent him to a specialist who decided to check the blood filtering rate (BFR) of his kidneys, which was declining, and he was put on dialysis.
Stedman is an otherwise healthy, non-smoker, non-drinker, 70 year old man who has never been married and therefore has no wife or children to ask to be living donors. He has two sisters and one brother but they have not been receptive to his plea.
“My family hasn’t been too willing to help, although I finally convinced my two sisters to get tested, but their families are not supportive of their possible donation,” said Stedman.
Throughout his life he has given to others. Stedman has been an orderly in seniors care facilities, worked with special needs children, and also been employed as a bus and truck driver. 
Stedman said he is on the transplant donor list but it is considered inactive until he finds a donor.
“Once I find a donor, they will put me on an active list and they will check the donor out. Preference is given to someone who is living,” said Stedman.
He said that a new kidney will allow him to continue helping people, especially those who are experiencing a similar situation.
“I know there is goodness in a lot of people and this story is a quest to try to find just one of those people who is willing to even look into the possibility to do something that won’t hurt them at all, to help another person in a tangible way,” said Stedman.
He said if a potential donor is proven to be safe and eligible to be a transplant, the Kidney Foundation of Canada has a Living Donor Organ Expense Reimbursement Program (LODERP) where they will reimburse them for some of their expenses incurred. 
He said these expenses would include gas costs incurred from traveling to and from Calgary for any transplant medical procedures, as well as hotel or motel accommodation costs including meals, before and after surgery.
“It’s a proven fact that ‘what goes around comes around’, so although it’s illegal to pay someone for a kidney, I’m confident they will get a reward somehow,” said Stedman.
The Southern Alberta Transplant Program performed a record number of organ transplants last year, despite challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to statistics released by Alberta Health Services (AHS). 
In southern Alberta, 105 organs (103 kidney, two pancreas) were transplanted in 2021 from 43 deceased donors and 25 living donors, exceeding the previous record of 101 set in 2017. There were 97 transplants completed in 2020 and 80 in 2019. The Southern Alberta Transplant Program focuses on kidney and pancreas transplants. 
To learn more about living donor programs and how to become a donor, visit MyHealthAlberta: About Living Donation. 
Anyone interested in donating to Rick Stedman, can contact the Southern Alberta Living Donor Program at (403) 944-4635 or Jill at 1-800-268-1177 at the Kidney Foundation of Canada.
Rick Stedman can be reached at rick-needs-a-kidney@outlook.com

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