Pam Hopkins-Dargavel acquired hepatitis C after she by accident caught a needle via her hand whereas working with a younger hemophiliac in 1990
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A former Ottawa Hospital nurse who acquired hepatitis C from an unintended needle stick is trying to find a dwelling liver donor who will help rescue her from organ failure.
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Pam Hopkins-Dargavel was working at The Ottawa Hospital in 1990 when she by accident caught a needle via her hand whereas working with a younger hemophiliac who had acquired hepatitis C throughout Canada’s tainted blood catastrophe.
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Hopkins-Dargavel was later recognized with hepatitis C, a viral an infection that may trigger liver irritation and extra severe injury.
Her sickness has progressed throughout the previous 20 years, badly scarring her liver. That cirrhosis has made it inconceivable for her to benefit from the antiviral therapy now obtainable for hepatitis C, mentioned her husband, Greg Dargavel.
His spouse, he mentioned, now suffers from continual fatigue which has curtailed her household life and each day actions. She used to sail, ski and cycle, however has change into too sick to take pleasure in these pursuits.
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“The challenges of on a regular basis dwelling are past her power stage; the one method to give Pam again her life is a liver transplant,” Dargavel mentioned in an interview. “I can’t discover the phrases to explain how exhausting it’s for our youngsters, Ryan and Meagan, and me to see Pam get sicker every single day.”
His spouse’s liver is unable to correctly cleanse her blood, Dargavel mentioned, so she additionally suffers from a mind fog that may go away her trying to find phrases. She’s on a particularly restrictive weight loss plan, he mentioned, and twice every week goes to the hospital to obtain new blood merchandise.
“She will make it via a day in the home, but it surely’s actually, actually troublesome,” Dargavel mentioned.
Hopkins-Dargavel, now 67, is one in every of greater than 260 folks on the wait record in Ontario for a liver transplant from a deceased donor.
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However with the wait time for a transplant unsure — receiving an organ can take years — the household launched a seek for a dwelling donor with blood kind B+, B-, O+, or O-. Nobody within the Hopkins-Dargavel household has confirmed to be the suitable blood kind to function a donor.
Dargavel started the search earlier this yr by inserting an indication within the window of his automobile, then he took the search to Fb two weeks in the past with the assistance of Ottawa communications knowledgeable Heather Badenoch, a dwelling donor who gifted a part of her liver to a baby in 2018.
Hopkins-Dargavel is on the transplant record at Toronto’s College Well being Community (UHN). In response to the UHN, it has carried out greater than 800 dwelling liver donor transplants since 1990 and all of its donors have returned to their common life-style with no restrictions.
