Mother recovering well after receiving part of son's liver
Dan Beamish says he’s “flabbergasted” at how well his mother is doing after major surgery. Diane Beamish, who lives in Corbeil, received part of Dan’s liver in a nine-hour operation performed Monday at Toronto General Hospital.
Dan Beamish says he’s “flabbergasted” at how well his mother is doing after major surgery.
Diane Beamish, who lives in Corbeil, received part of Dan’s liver in a nine-hour operation performed Monday at Toronto General Hospital.
The transplant was Diane’s final hope to overcome the effects of primary biliary cirrhosis, a disease that slowly destroys the bile ducts in the liver.
“She’s doing fantastic,” said Beamish, who was also under the knife for nine hours. “I’m just flabbergasted by how great she’s coming along.”
Still the best option Diane, a 60-year-old grandmother, had been placed on a liver transplant waiting list a year ago, with the average wait to receive the organ being two to two and a half years, Beamish said.
“You could receive one from a someone who’d died, but a living donour was still the best option, so I offered mine.”
Up to 70 per cent of his liver was used, Beamish said during a telephone interview from his hospital room, but doctors haven’t told him yet just how much.
“It doesn’t matter because it will grow back to its normal size within three months and I’ll be able to get back to a normal way of life,” said Dan, 31, who now lives in Milton and works as an inside sales representative for a service station equipment supplier.
How good both of us looked Beamish, shown here with Diane in a photo supplied to BayToday.ca, said he felt well enough to walk around Wednesday and visited his mother in her room.
“Her first words when she saw me were ‘I love you,’” Beamish said, his voice quavering with emotion. “Then she said she couldn’t believe how good both of us looked.”
Diane will have to be on anti-rejection drugs the rest of her life, Beamish said.
She’ll also be undergoing a series of follow-up blood tests, and will stay with Dan for about a month to be close to the hospital.
The greatest gift Beamish said the experience has made him a fervent believer in organ transplantation and urges everyone to make sure they’ve sign the organ donation part of their drivers licenses.
“I know if I died in a car crash and somebody could live because they received my organs, then that,” Beamish said, “would the greatest gift I could ever give.
