My name is Jo-Ann Hall, I live in Plantagenet Ontario near Ottawa and I have just returned from India having donated half of my liver to my dying brother Kevin Stewart.  My brother was born and raised in Ottawa Canada but has lived in Florida for 22 years, he owned his own business so had no medical insurance.   He was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.  When he came to my daughter’s wedding in the summer of 2006 he was his usual self, however, when we went to visit him in November of the same year I was devastated to see the change in him.  I spoke with my husband saying I think he has cancer or something is seriously wrong with him.  He had a belly on him the size of a pregnant woman, he had lost all muscle mass especially noticeable in the upper body.  He was doing a full body cleanse thinking that his bowels were acting up.  I work in the health and wellness field and of course I also think that natural is always the better way to go however you need to know what you are dealing with because a body cleanse is hard enough on a healthy body, it robs you of everything.  I asked him to please see a doctor first and then we would find the right vitamins to help.  He e-mailed me the day of my return to Canada to let me know he had been diagnosed with failure of the liver; a little more digging and they found that it was cirrhosis of the liver.  This is incurable.  The liver cannot regenerate itself so all of the fluid was building up in his mid-section due to the liver shutting itself down.  His eyes and skin were turning yellow.  By now my brother had no energy and no appetite.  He was fading fast.  He realized he had to do something so he called the University of Miami to find out how to get on a waiting list for a liver transplant however he was told that he must be referred by his doctor.  He got all the paperwork done with his specialist and sent it in.  He kept phoning back to find out if they had received his papers only to be told on numerous occasions that they had received nothing.  They also told him that he needed to be on their program to be eligible but that would come after they received paperwork.

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He contacted the Shands medical center, Gainesville Florida University, but because he did not live in the area he did not qualify.  I also got in touch myself with the Liver Foundation here in Canada; I asked them how much it would cost to assess him, the reply was we have no idea how much it would cost because it is covered by Ohip.  His only option would be to apply for a Ohip card, wait three months and then get on the waiting list.  We were told that the waiting list goes by severity of disease, in other words you have to be dying to go to the top of the list. 

Finally he contacted the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Florida.  He had heard that they are the very best.  He was told that yes they could help him -  for a mere $35,000.00 he could be assessed with no promise of a transplant but if he was chosen for a cadaver transplant it would cost him another $300,000.00. 

He had some money saved but how would he be able to recuperate properly after not being able to work for a minimum of 6 months.  The rest of the family couldn’t believe that this was the only option available, however if it, was we were all willing to mortgage our homes in order to save his life.  That is when my sister, Angela, mentioned she had been doing some research on the net and that there are some wonderful hospitals in far away areas that could do the transplant for a fraction of the cost. 

Kevin was very skeptical about having surgery in some of these countries.  Having no choices left to him in his own country or his native country he decided to investigate a little further so he went on the net to look at medical tourism.  He contacted three different companies but the only one to answer him and only hours later was WORLD MED ASSIST.  The Chief Executive Officer of the company himself, Wouter Hoeberchts, called him to say he would look into it further but wasn’t sure if he wanted to take him on as a patient seeing as he was so advanced in his disease.  Wouter told Kevin that he had an 86% success rate of getting through the transplant.  When Wouter talked to him again it was to let him know that he would take him on and that the best place to have the surgery would be in India at the Apollo Hospital in New Delhi.  He gave Kevin an estimate to the cost -  $55,000.00 for both himself and his living donor including the total hospital stay. 

Well Kevin was so surprised he figured it was worth taking a closer look.  A living donor transplant has a much better success rate.  Wouter proceeded to tell him that he would send him resume’s from the different doctor’s who perform these operations.  When Kevin saw Dr. Subhash Gupta’s resume he looked no further.  Dr. Gupta had performed over 120 transplants with an excellent success rate and a life expectancy rate higher than the Mayo Clinic.  Dr. Gupta’s success record is 85% for 3 years post op, Kevin’s short term survival chances were much higher than that.  Kevin called me and asked if I would still like to give him half of my liver and of course I said yes. 

Kevin spoke with Wouter for the first time at the beginning of June 2007 and if Dr. Gupta hadn’t have had a conference in a different country we would have left mid June but as it turned out we left for India on June 26, 2007.  My brother finally had some hope.  We arrived at the airport to find a driver holding up a card with Kevin’s name on it, he took us directly to the Apollo Hospital.  Wouter had seen to all the details.  We were escorted to our room immediately.  What was also wonderful was that being the donor I could stay in Kevin’s room with him at no extra charge. 

Kevin had arranged for our partner’s to meet up with us but not until the tests were done.  This is a long stay.  I stayed for exactly one month and Kevin for two.  We wanted our partners with us for the actual surgery.  For eight days we went through different tests.  The doctors ( the team consisted of 9 doctors) wanted to make sure they knew exactly what they were dealing with.  As it turned out I had a very large liver.  Normally they will take 60 - 65 % of the donor liver and in the end they only took 40 % of mine due to it’s size.  We were scheduled for surgery on July 11th. 

The hospital was very nice.  The nurses mostly spoke English, however, if we had any concerns we called or e-mailed Wouter and he had everything dealt with in no time.  As you can imagine this is a serious surgery and we were in a different country to our own.  It was a little scary but to know we had Wouter to rely on was priceless. 

The night before surgery, my husband had arrived and the three of us spent the night in the hospital together.  The hospital had arranged for my own room but my brother told them that he wanted me in the same room.  I think he needed the moral support and so did we.  We kept things light, talked to family on the computer, and laughed.  However 5.30 am rolled around quite quickly.  It was time to prep. 

We were both wheeled away.  The prep team were wonderful and tried to keep us calm.  Next thing we knew we were done and in the ICU.  They had given me an epidural for the pain following the surgery, my brother however had to have morphine.  I knew where I was and the epidural helped a great deal with the pain, my brother didn’t know where he was for two days until the morphine wore off but we were both alive and the operation was a success. 

By the second day I was able to get up and take a walk to my brother’s room and he was awake and looking better than he had in a long time even though he had a long way to go.  The ICU nurses were amazing, they looked after us every second of every minute of every day.  The people in India are so helpful and sweet.  We had staff from other floors coming by just to wish us well.  I made it out of the ICU in 5 days and was transferred to a normal room where I stayed for 4 more days and then was completely released.  I left for Canada on July 26th.  My brother made it to a normal room in record time and was sent home on Aug 26th; he wasn’t supposed to able to leave until September 11th. 

We were told afterwards that we were the first North American’s EVER to have a liver transplant in India.  All in all it was an amazing experience.  Being able to be in touch with our family through the whole thing, Wouter had suggested an internet phone line, we could talk and see all of our loved ones and when you are that far away it was comforting for both us and our family. 

I started “Diaries of India” the day we arrived so every morning in Canada and the US our loved ones could read about all of our day to day experiences.  Since I have returned home and cannot work for several months I have come to the idea that I would like to start an internet medical tourism travel agency.  I really would like to help others who may be in the same predicament.  Kevin has been home in Big Pine Key, Florida for over a month now and doing so well, he can almost not remember how terrible he felt waking up every morning feeling the way he did before the transplant. 

We have made Wouter part of our family and he has decided that since we have never met that he will make a trip to Florida due to my husband and myself going to visit Kevin in November.  Wouter’s company, World Med Assist, is out San Francisco, California.  We did get to see what he looked like on the web cam but we all feel we need to see each other.  What would we have done without him. 

If you find yourself in this type of situation don’t try to do it on your own.  When you are in a foreign country things are done differently - thank god we had someone who knew just what to do.  When all was said and done the whole trip cost Kevin $70,000.00 including airfare (first class for 4), bed and breakfast (New Delhi Bed and Breakfast, I would stay there again in a minute, what a wonderful couple), and hospital procedures, tests and stay.  We are all grateful that we had a happy ending and that my brother, Kevin, will have many more years to enjoy.
 

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