Former Oliver resident Mike Watson has a reason to smile again after a successful liver transplant in Hong Kong. He is shown here with partner Lisa Needoba who was the live donor.
Photo contributed
Former Oliver resident Mike Watson is in recovery, after undergoing a life-saving liver transplant in Hong Kong.
Watson was discharged from Queen Mary Hospital March 22, after a horrible saga that saw him go from relatively healthy to days from death to recovering with a new liver in just a few short months.
Watson, whose new liver came thanks to a live transplant from his partner Lisa Needoba, said he and Needoba are taking things one day at a time, and are still coming to terms with the fact that he is alive.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s completely overwhelming, and it’s mind blowing,” Watson said on March 26, reflecting on his journey as he walked the streets of Hong Kong.
“Having to drop our kids and come halfway around the world for something like this, not knowing if we would come back, it’s a pretty big deal,” he said.
The saga began for Watson last December, when a sudden internal hemorrhage left him with a serious condition called hepatorenal syndrome.
Hepatorenal syndrome can kill in as little as three months, and Canadian doctors told Watson he would need a liver transplant to survive. They also told him he was too sick to receive it, and would have to wait at least six months before any surgery could happen.
Faced with the possibility of dying in just a few months, Watson, his family and his friends began looking for options.
It was then they stumbled upon Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, where organ transplant doctors told Watson he would have an 80 per cent survival rate if he underwent surgery there.
Preparations were soon underway, and in early March, as Watson teetered on the brink of death, he and four possible donors arrived at the Hong Kong hospital.
Spencer Watson, Mike’s older brother, wasn’t one of the possible donors, but was in Hong Kong as Watson underwent surgery.
He said that Mike’s condition was so critical that his possible donors were screened, the best candidate (Needoba) was chosen and Watson went under the knife less than 24 hours after arriving.
Spencer said it took a team of eight doctors more than 24 hours to complete both Needoba and Watson’s surgeries, but that there were only “minor complications” and both are now recovering.
In typical older-brother fashion, Spencer initially laughed off questions about Mike’s survival by hurling minor insults at him, but before long his earnestness shone through.
“I’m of the philosophy that it works out no matter what, so I never considered the alternative, to be honest,” he said. “We didn’t even think that he may not make it.”
Spencer said that Mike’s chances of survival were one per cent in Canada, but 80 per cent in Hong Kong. “I’ll take 80 per cent any day,” he said.
Watson himself wasn’t half as sure.
He recalled lying on the surgery table as doctors put the anesthetic mask on him. As he drifted off he remembers thinking he could be taking his last breath. But, he said, “I knew the outcome if I didn’t go into it.”
Watson and Needoba are still recovering, and require almost daily hospital visits. He said he spends his days trying to regain strength (he lost 60 pounds during his ordeal) so he can finally come home.
When he does finally make it back to Kaleden, he will arrive to a community that has opened its heart and wallet for him.
With the cost of the hospital visit more than $250,000, and the plane ride and accommodations heaping even more on top of that, Watson and his family could have been looking at significant debt.
But community members have come knocking, hosting events and donating money, already raising more than $146,000, according to Spencer.
Watson said he can’t express how much gratitude he feels towards his friends and family back home, but admitted that without them he might not be standing here today.
“They have helped us push through what has really been quite a difficult experience,” he said. “It’s been really amazing. I don’t understand it, to be honest with you.”
By Trevor Nichols
