Geoff Dunsire has a lot to be thankful for.
As the recipient of both a kidney and a liver, he is very lucky to be alive – and that is why every year he participates in Operation Popcorn, where he thanks nurses and doctors at Ridge Meadows Hospital for all that they do to make organ transplant a reality.
Operation Popcorn is now in its 33rd year and takes place at hospitals and transplant clinics across the province. It is an event which gives people who have been directly impacted by organ donation an opportunity to personally thank staff in intensive care units, emergency departments, and operating rooms for the work that they do.
Since 2019, Geoff has been joined by his mother Tracey and his living kidney donor Debi Pearce, in thanking the staff at Ridge Meadows Hospital.
On Monday, Dec. 2, armed with three festive boxes of popcorn, the trio, along with representatives with BC Transplant and Fraser Health, visited three different units of the hospital to hand out the popcorn, share their story, and say thanks.
And Tracey was more than happy to share their story with the staff in each unit.
Geoff lived with auto-immune hepatitis until he was 25, when he fell ill with flu-like symptoms and was told he was at the end stages of liver failure. Doctors gave him two weeks to live.
His liver transplant took place in 2013.
Then he ended up in the Intensive Care Unit, ICU, at Vancouver General Hospital for three months, where he received an infection in his blood that went to his heart and his brain. His kidneys shut down and he was on dialysis for six years. Then he ended up paralyzed from the neck down and was told he would never walk again.
He would spend a total of 16 months in the hospital before being able to return home again, but in need of a new kidney.
This is where his family’s real estate agent, Debi, stood up to the plate.
Tracey told staff how Debi and her husband were their real estate agents in Maple Ridge, who helped them sell their property to move to Mission to be with their entire family.
Debi, she said, saw how sick Geoff was returning from dialysis three times a week because he needed a new kidney. At the time the pair were virtual strangers.
So, Debi decided to be tested to see if she would be a match for his blood type and eight months later they were given the go ahead for the transplant.
The transplant took place on June 19, 2019, when Geoff was 31.
And, to this day, his kidney and liver are perfect, said his mom.
Now, Tracey noted, Geoff calls Debi his kidney mom.
"They said it was the most perfect match they had seen in an unrelated donor," said Debi.
"Type 'O' positive," she added. "He's got better kidney function than I do now," she joked.
"It's fantastic that we have Operation Popcorn at Ridge Meadows Hospital every year," said Jason Faulkner, director of clinical operations at Ridge Meadows Hospital.
"It's great to hear from a transplant recipient, to hear how their life's been changed as a result of a donation and it really helps to highlight to us as a staff team how we really need to get behind donations and to support transplants where ever we are able to do so," he said.
Tracey mentioned how honoured they are to be a part of operation popcorn.
"Raising awareness, this is what this is all about," she said.
Sandra Bazley, hospital donation coordinator with Fraser Health Authority, said she remembers being a charge nurse at St. Paul's Hospital and having the cardiac recipients come by and drop off popcorn when she was a nurse.
"A lot of the work we do is so sad," said Bazley, who noted the nurses and doctors don't often see the successful outcomes of their hard work. They usually only see the patient when they are really sick or if they are working on a deceased donor.
Bazley was happy on Monday to be part of Operation Popcorn, in appreciation of her colleagues.
"Just a little something to say thank you."
