Caroline is a kidney transplant recipient who had two transplants, one from a living donor (her husband, who’s also a TAP ambassador) in a domino transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland in 2009. Her second transplant was from an extended criteria deceased donor at LHSC in 2016.

For Caroline the most rewarding experience as a transplant ambassador is giving patients hope and accurate information to help reduce their fears. When Caroline was initially diagnosed with renal failure, both her son and daughter wanted to be living donors for her. She was adamant that she did not want them to be donors, frightened of the risk there might be for them. As it turned out she was incompatible with them both, and when a paired exchange presented itself, it was her husband, also incompatible, who was her partner in the transplant. Caroline’s initial transplant lasted seven years, and then because of rejection she found herself back on dialysis. This time she was fortunate enough to quickly find a deceased compatible donor in the highly sensitized patient program.

Prior to this, her daughter again voiced her desire to enter a paired exchange program to be her mother’s living donor. She wanted to give Caroline the gift of life so that her mom would still be there for her. Her daughter was evaluated and found to be a good candidate for living donation. They went together into the paired exchange program, but no suitable matching pair was found. It turned out to be a revelation for Caroline to recognize that she hadn’t considered her daughters feelings. As a parent, Caroline completely relates to the fear of accepting a donation from a child, and she offers a different perspective, one that her daughter helped her realize which is that denying your child the opportunity to save your life is robbing them of their autonomy.