Nova Scotia Man of Organ Transplant is strictly needed

Shamuel Provo-Benoite sits in her grandmother’s living room-surrounded by family photos, angel sculptures and Bible verses-and wait for a phone call that can save her life.

The 35-year-old Provo-Benoite lives with his grandmother in North Preston, NS he passes time to watch television, waiting for a daily journey from a nurse to check his dialysis machine and keep an eye on his phone. There is a worried peace here.

When their phone rings, their feeling of anticipation quickly turns into despair.

“It was a 647 number so I thought it was a call, but it was not. It was a spam call,” he said with a tired smile.

Since February, a kidney and pancreas are ready for a call from Ajmera Transplant Center at Provo-Benoite Toronto General Hospital.

Provo-Benoite was discovered by type 1 diabetes when he was 10 years old. Complications from the disease have claimed her kidney, so she requires a transplant for dialysis or existence.

They also require a pancreas transplant that will prevent the progression of irreversible damage spread through their body, including some vision loss and nerve damage to their feet. This will also free him from the constant anxiety of dangerous blood sugar accidents.

Had to restrain

While kidney transplant is available in Nova Scotia, complex pancreas surgery has not been offered in the province in about 10 years.

“There was no way that I could live on this earth, knowing that there is a cure … and I don’t need to do that treatment,” said Provo-Benoite.

Last year, during a dialysis treatment at the Halifax Informari, a doctor who had never seen before, or had since seen, mentioned a program in Ontario that provides kidney and pancreas transplantation, but would have to self-refer.

So they discovered it online and made a call.

Provo-Benoite’s call was returned in January by a registered nurse and clinical coordinator of Ajmera Transplant Center, Andrea Norgate.

Norgate said that he is similar to Provo-Benoite with many patients. The average age of transplant recipients is 35–45.

“I was looking for a little hope, and he assured me that I would get that hope with transplantation,” he said.

His medical records were soon forwarded, blood tests were conducted and he was paying out-off-packets for a trip to Toronto, where he met the transplantation team and was placed on the weightlist. The team also gained the support of its nephrologist to provide follow -up care in Nova Scotia.

Health care systems are established to do physicians to act as gatekeepers of medical resources. Provo-Benoite’s ability to initiate the process for out-of-the-province transplant surgery has been submerged by the Nova Scotia government.

In a statement by the Department of Health and Welfare, a spokesperson said “patients cannot be given self-references,” given that a Nova Scotia specialist must make a referral “should be committed to performing the medical requirement of the procedure and post-operative follow-up care after the patient’s return.”

But Provo-Benoite bypassed that system, just by calling a call.

“I was so,” Okay, Sam, you can do one or two things. You can either sit here and you can complain … or you can go ahead and pull your socks and work and work and complete it, “he said.

“And I just had to complete it.”

Transplant patients gone away

The doctor barrier is one that the Toronto Transplant team has faced several times.

Surgical Director of Panses Transplant Program, Dr. Trevor Reachman said that three to five patients from the East Coast are accepted for transplantation with “important issues with diabetes and comoridities”, but are then blocked by physicians in their home province.

Without surgery, without the approval of the procedure and agreement for the patient’s care after surgery, the provincial governments will not cover the costs related to surgery and travel, so they are forced to overcome them.

“You can essentially fix what they are actually struggling with regard to diabetes and are not able to do so,” said Reachman. “It is difficult to tell them, sorry, we can’t help you.”

He blames it on old knowledge between some doctors that do not work the pancreas transplant. But in the last decade, this process has developed in a “functional treatment” for diabetes that also increases a transplanted kidney life.

Norgate saw a pattern of zero referral for patients with Atlantic Canadian about three years ago, Reachman has traveled to Nova Scotia and New Breanswick to educate the medical community.

He expects to do so in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland at the end of this year to help more patients.

Outreach is working. Two patients, both Nova Scotions, have received transplantation this year. According to Norgate, Provo-Beniot can be third.

Unlike a lot of diseases, who do not expect, Norgate said that Provo-Banoite is now “something to look forward.”

“I am very respected and happy to be a part of that,” he said.

Ready for the next step

Fearing that he might be saddened by the financial burden of out-off-poverty health care, Provo-Benoite organized a money-raising concert at the end of March, where he shared mental pain of living with an chronic, weak disease.

He said, “I no longer wanted to be here. I did not know whether I am going to make it the next day,” he said, his friends and family support helped him strongly.

His suitcase is partially packed, and he is ready for the next step. He is praying that the call comes “really before something bad.”

Transplant surgery gives him hope for normal life. He wants to work again and his goal is to work as a paralegal.

He also plans to travel to reunion with his twin daughters. They live in Vinnipag, and they have not seen them in two years.

“I give a lot to Andrea and her team, I do. I just keep thinking that they are giving my children back to their father.”