Cape Breton couple has renewed hope of finding organ donor online

A Cape Breton family is considering resuming an online search for an organ donor after health officials acknowledged earlier this week that social media is changing the way people form relationships with potential donors.

Donna Wilkie and her husband Ken posted an ad on Kijiji looking for a kidney in 2013. She said dozens of people contacted them, but none of the volunteers got tested because they were told a living donor had to know an organ recipient for two years in order for them to qualify.

Wilkie's daughters didn't qualify and a friend who had wanted to donate wasn't healthy enough. 

"When the news came to him that no one outside of a circle that we knew would even be considered that just changed everything, put everything to a stop," she said Tuesday.

"It would give Ken an opportunity to have so many more people tested who are willing. It just opens the door to so much possibility that he'd find a donor, and find it quickly."

'Down in the dumps'

The Nova Scotia Health Authority has a policy not to allow people to donate organs to strangers.

But this week, the surgical head of the organ transplant program in the province told CBC News his team isn't equipped to determine how people know each other or form relationships in the age of social media. Dr. Ian Alwayn says they have to evaluate on a case-by-case basis.

Alwayn said a team of social workers, psychologists and possibly an ethicist can determine if a potential donor knows what they were getting in for and that there is no coercion or financial incentives.

He said the goal is to protect the organ donor, and added that social media has also likely increased the number of altruistic donors and awareness about donation.

National organ donation standards for living donors require health-care providers to assess someone's medical and psychological health before a transplant.

Since his initial public plea for an organ, Ken Wilkie, who lives in Leitches Creek, has gone on dialysis and has had numerous surgeries to adjust tubes in his arms, chest and neck.

"It was a big hardship on Ken physically," said Donna Wilkie.

"Emotionally, it really put you down in the dumps that you've lost that opportunity with so many people willing to step forward and at least be tested to see if they would be a donor."

She said given the new information about the health authority's approach, she and her husband will be discussing specifics with the transplant team he's worked with and considering whether to reach out for donors again.