Increased funding for live organ donors would boost program, says N.S. woman who donated kidney

A Nova Scotia woman who donated a kidney to her friend says more needs to be done to financially support people who choose to become live donors, especially if they have to travel for the procedure.

Increased funding for live organ donors would boost program, says N.S. woman who donated kidney Laura Fowler went to Quebec City for surgery without a designated support person to help her recovery A Nova Scotia woman who donated a kidney to her friend says more needs to be done to financially support people who choose to become live donors, especially if they have to travel for the procedure. Laura Fowler said while the process is supposed to be cost-neutral for donors, she faced large travel bills in order to make the life-saving donation in January to her childhood friend, Cheryl Houghton-Flamand, who lives in Quebec.

Fowler lives in Kingston, N.S., and had to travel to Quebec City six times for the surgery and related appointments. "If I didn't have that support from family and friends, it would have been a financial burden, huge," Fowler said. Fowler's comments come after an Ottawa woman, Amanda Acker, called out the Nova Scotia government for not paying for her partner's expenses when they travelled to Halifax so she could give a kidney to her sister.

Unlike cases involving anonymous kidney donations, both Acker and Fowler were told they had to travel, and did not have the option to have their surgeries in their home provinces. Each province determines its own allowance for travel expenses for live donors. Fowler said she was allocated $1,500 for travel to Quebec, plus some money for hotels and meals.

She said she burned through that allocation during the first two trips for medical appointments. Her recipient's family held fundraisers to cover her remaining costs. In Acker's case, she thought she was covered under Ontario's program until a month before her surgery.

The Nova Scotia program offered less financial support and would not pay for a companion, leaving her with $3,000 in unexpected expenses to make the trip. Fowler sympathizes with Acker. She also didn't have coverage for a companion and ended up going alone for the actual donation.

"I had Cheryl's family be able to be there but they weren't with me all the time," she said of her recipient's family. "I actually got the hospital in Quebec to keep me for a few more days because I didn't have somebody to go with me right away to the hotel afterwards." Fowler returned to Nova Scotia just over three weeks after the surgery, taking the train because she didn't think she could navigate a plane at that stage in her recovery.

Fowler and Acker are calling on provinces to ensure the experience is truly cost-neutral, and both say having a support person is essential. "It's emotionally draining after the first moment, when you've given the kidney, because you think you can just get up and start doing things, well you can't," said Fowler. "I know it took me at least a good week before I could really do things on my own and get around."

She and Acker both said it makes sense for those expenses to be covered, as kidney donations save the health-care system money in the long run because recipients can come off dialysis. Statistics show organs from live donors last longer than those from deceased donors. They can also have higher success rates if a transplant is done before dialysis begins.

Both women say it's important to raise these concerns to fix gaps in the live donation process and encourage more people to donate. "They would get a lot more people wanting to come forward and help out and donate if it wasn't such a financial thing. I think they need to look at that," said Fowler.

"I feel amazing to see my friend Cheryl enjoying life again. She spent four years not having a life, she was on dialysis. She couldn't travel to see her family here in Nova Scotia."

Acker, meanwhile, received dozens of offers of support from across the country after CBC initially reported on her financial concerns. She said she's overwhelmed by the response, but still hopes to see government policy changed so donors won't have to go public in the future. Acker plans to use the money to cover her family's travel costs.

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