Edinburgh News | Alistair Grant
| Kenny and Sally Douglas, following the surgery in Canada |
FOR Kenny Douglas, it was an almost unbearable wait to find out whether he would live or die.
The father-of-two suffered from pulmonary fibrosis, a rare and little understood disease that causes scarring of the lungs.
The symptoms had been present for almost two decades, but had started to become more severe in the last five or six years – before reaching a crisis point in the last six months.
As wife Sally recalls, it got to the stage where Kenny – previously a soldier, marathon runner and self-confessed rugby fanatic who played for Heriot’s for more than five years – was unable to walk a dozen yards before doubling up with severe shortness of breath.
But just as things were taking a turn for the worse, the family was given the news it had been waiting for – after two long years, a donor had finally become available.
Elated, the Douglases made the five-hour journey from their home in Ottawa – where they had emigrated to from Scotland more than ten years ago – to the Toronto General Hospital, and last month Kenny received the double lung transplant that promises to change his life forever.
from Donate Life Organ and Tissue Donation Blog℠ http://ift.tt/1JpEIDX
0 comments:
Post a Comment