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Blood donors needed at Vernon clinic

Vernon man Stewy Stuart urges all who can to donate blood
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Cara Brady

Morning Star Staff

Next time you’re donating blood at the Vernon blood donor clinic, take a few minutes to talk to that friendly guy handing out the cookies and juice.

Stewy Stuart will tell you why what you’ve just done is so important. He knows. Blood donations saved his life several months ago.

“I’m lucky. I got to have a lung transplant and I had transfusions during the operations and for a bleeding bowel after. Those transfusions kept me alive,” he said, taking a break after his regular walk with wife, Kathy.

Stuart, 63, was diagnosed with emphysema, where the air sacs in the lungs start to shut down, several years ago. He was 58 when he was considered for a lung transplant and had the surgery when he was 62. If he had been much older, he would not have been considered for the transplant.

“I know what the end of emphysema looks like. My mom had it. My parents smoked, I used to smoke. I played in a band for 20 years in smoky places. People know smoking was bad for you even then but people smoked anyway,” he said.

He was never told that smoking contributed directly to his lung failure but he knows it can’t have been good for it.

Last fall, things were not looking good for Stuart, who had retired from his promotion products business in Calgary and moved to Vernon in 2010.

“All I could do was sit in a chair. Getting up to walk the few steps to the bathroom or around the house was a big exertion. I was on an oxygen tank. I had always been active, playing hockey, golf and scuba diving. And I had another complication. One of my heart valves was leaking so it was doubtful if I could survive surgery on my lungs, and my lungs wouldn’t allow for surgery on my heart. I’m grateful I was considered for a transplant,” he said.

He was referred to the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton where they had the expertise for a heart and lung operation if a suitable donor became available. He was prepared for the surgery with exercise, information about diet and the psychological effects, and his family was told what they could expect and how they could help.

“I think the whole ordeal was harder on my wife and family than on me in some ways. I felt like I was a burden. I just knew what would happen, would happen. I just wanted to get better or die. We got the call on January 5 this year and I went by ambulance to Kelowna to an air ambulance to Edmonton and the operation was January 7.”

It took two units of blood to keep him alive through the 10-hour operation and another five units to save him during another operation for a bleeding bowel ulcer.

“When I came to, I couldn’t believe how well I felt, I didn’t need oxygen. We had to stay near the hospital for three months afterwards to get the anti-rejection medication right. My wife was a care aide for years and she did everything for me and was everything to me,” said Stuart, father of five and grandfather of three.

“I didn’t think I could ever feel so well again. I’m walking a lot and I play golf. My last lung function test was 130 per cent. I thank the lung donor and the blood donors for their gifts.”

Stuart walks regularly as a member of the Vernon Curves Ladies’ Walking Group and volunteers at Canadian Blood Services’ blood donor clinics with the Vernon Rotary Club.

Stuart urges people to consider blood donation and is regretful that he could never donate because of travels in Africa and Central America when he was young.

“It doesn’t take much time to give blood. I am alive and a lot of people are alive because of blood donations. One time, a woman brought her young child who had been saved by blood donations in to a clinic and that was a happy day for everyone,” he said.

The next clinic in Vernon is Nov. 15-17, from 1 to 6 p.m. each day at Trinity United Church on Alexis Park Drive. To book your appointment, call Canadian Blood Services at 1-888-236-6283 or go online to blood.ca

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Canadian Blood Services calling for donors