West Prince man overwhelmed as list of potential organ donors grows
'It's been really nice and humbling to have so many people want to give a piece of themselves'
A West Prince man who's waiting for a liver transplant now has about 20 new potential donors.
Kevin Clements and his wife Josephine of Montrose, P.E.I., say the volunteers came forward following a CBC News report about them last week.
"It's very overwhelming," said Josephine Clements. "It's been really nice and humbling to have so many people want to give a piece of themselves to a total stranger. That's a lot to give."
Clements said her phone "hasn't stopped" ringing as people contact her to ask how they can help.
Her husband is living with life-threatening liver condition hepatopulmonary syndrome, which affects his breathing and blood-oxygen levels.
Tight timeline
The potential donors are from Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I., Clements said.
She has set up a Facebook group to keep potential donors up to date on her husband's progress. They're also filling out donor applications for the living donor program and getting blood tests to see if they may be a match.
About one in four potential donors turn out to be a match, according to Clements.
But time is ticking.
"There's going to be point, where if Kevin's too bad, the surgery won't be happening," she said.
Kevin will undergo more tests on P.E.I. in coming days, she said, which will determine if he is placed on the list for a living liver donation surgery at Toronto General Hospital. If all goes well, they will travel to Toronto next month.
"Hopefully, when we go down in March, they'll have found a match and we'll get the operation soon after that," said Clements.
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