“It’s harder than I ever dreamed it would be,” says Hopkins-Dargavel. “I had a very sick patient who had to cover the needle very quickly. And I put it out of my hand.” The patient was a hemophiliac who received hepatitis C-contaminated blood, which was then transferred to Hopkins-Dargavel. Her most recent treatment for hepatitis C was successful, but her liver is too badly damaged to recover. “So we’re hoping that once she cleared the Hep C there would be enough good liver for the liver to regenerate and get back to normal liver function,” says her husband Greg. “However, the psoriatic liver has so much fear, the liver cannot heal itself.” For the past six months, Hopkins-Dargavel has been receiving whole blood transfusions every month. Extremely tired, she sleeps most of the day. “He now has the liver of a 95-year-old alcoholic, despite never having been a drinker,” says Greg. Hopkins-Dargavel is in desperate need of a liver transplant, hopefully from a living donor. “But unfortunately, I have a very rare blood type,” says Hopkins-Dargavel. This blood type is B, which means that he can only receive a liver from anyone with blood type O+, O-, B+ or B- between the ages of 16 and 60 and in good health. The donor need not be related or of the same ethnicity. Heather Badenoch is a living liver donor. Four years ago, she donated 22 percent of her liver to save a child’s life. “I had an amazing recovery and life for me was back to normal within a month,” says Badenoch. “My own liver, after donation, would start growing again on day two, be fully functional by day 10, and return to full volume within weeks.” Pam and Greg are avid sailors and hope a transplant will put them back on the water, with the wind in their sails, doing what they love. “I’m hoping to get a transplant and get back to some of my physical activities,” says Hopkins-Dargavel. If you would like to help, you can visit the public Facebook page for Pam’s search for a donor or the University Health Network Living Liver Donor Program.
