“If it wasn’t for an organ donor I wouldn’t be here today.”
That’s the message Larry Mason of Fergus had for Canadians this national organ and tissue donation awareness week.
“And there’s so many people waiting for organ donations and it’s something that I feel [is] right,” he continued.
Mason, now 77 years old, received a donor heart in 1993. He was the 154th heart transplant patient at Toronto General Hospital.
Leading up to his 1993 surgery, Mason worked for Centre Wellington Fire and Rescue for 20 years but he had to stop in 1984 after he had two heart attacks, one in 1982 and one in 1983.
In 1986 he had bypass surgery and had a third heart attack about an hour after his surgery, further damaging his heart.
“And that’s when the left part of the heart started to die,” he said.
It wasn’t until 1991 that Mason started talking to his doctors about a heart transplant.
In the time leading up to his July 27 transplant surgery, Mason’s condition deteriorated to the point where he had to use an electric wheelchair for mobility – and then the life-changing call came.
“We were down at Guelph Lake camping. I wasn’t in very good shape,” Mason remembered. “We got the call at about 4:10 in the afternoon and (they) said we think we have a heart for you. It was very emotional. Still is. So we went to the hospital and I went in the operating room at 11:30 at night and I come out at 4 o’clock in the morning.”
But even then the News wasn’t good.
“The doctor went to my wife and said ‘we had a very serious problem in the operating room,’” Mason explained. “When we put the new heart in, the left side of the heart wouldn’t start.”
It turns out the heart had been bumped or touched in the wrong way and the blood vessels had closed and weren’t going to open again, Mason explained. His doctor took an artery from another part of his body and put it inside his heart and fixed the problem.
His new heart has been working ever since.
Just 17 days after his surgery Mason was up and walking around downtown Toronto. He walked from Toronto General Hospital to the Eaton Centre and back.
Despite multiple surgeries to correct calcium build up on three of his vertebrae due to his transplant, and to remove two pockets of cancer in his colon, likely a result of his rejection medication, Mason is healthy today.
“I thank not only my donor but all donors who have given to … recipients,” he said. “I can’t thank them enough for what they gave me. It’s quite a thing at a time of their grief to go ahead and do that. “
He is one of three heart transplant recipients out of 27 who received donations at Toronto General Hospital in 1993 who is still alive.
Now, 22 years after his surgery, Mason is back to working with the fire department.
“What I do is I look after the old fire truck,” he said. “I take it in parades, I open the Highland Games with it and I clean it and I repair it.”
One of his highlights is driving the old truck in the July 1 parade in Elora.
“I put the organ donation signs on the side of it,” he said.
Mason is also responsible for the organ donation awareness month messages on multiple electronic signs throughout Centre Wellington.
For information about organ donation go to beadonor.ca.
