Nearly 40 years after hanging up his cleats, a former college football player will donate a kidney to his then coach, who is suffering from end-stage kidney failure.
“It’s an overly generous gesture on his part. It lengthens my life and will allow me to see my grandchildren longer, ”says, moved, Jocelyn Beauvillier.
The retired physical education teacher has had to undergo dialysis every night for two years because of his end-stage kidney failure.
He had already been on Transplant Québec’s waiting list for a kidney transplant for a few months when he went to a “reunion” day, bringing together former players from the Trappeurs du Collège football team. Marie-Victorin last June.
It was then that he met Patrice Lortie, whom he had trained in 1985 and 1986 and whom he had not seen since that time.
“I realized he was not okay at all. Yet he was an energetic person, in great shape, a real football coach!”, says Mr. Lortie, who is a secondary school French teacher.
The two athletes quickly realized that they had the same blood type, O negative. Only 7% of Quebecers have it, according to Héma-Québec.
There followed a multitude of tests to determine if Patrice Lortie’s kidneys were compatible with those of the former coach.
“They checked everything to make sure both kidneys were pumping the same thing, they had to be equivalent. Everything was beautiful, everything was good”, explains Mr. Lortie, 57 years old.
Upcoming operation
In mid-January, he met for the first time the surgeon from the McGill University Health Center (MUHC), who will remove his right kidney. The intervention should take place next March.
The operation should last about three and a half hours, the hospitalization three days, and the recovery six weeks.
“We are really looking forward to it! We want to move on. I apprehend a little [cette opération], because I’ve never had surgery. I don’t really know how my body will react,” says Mr. Lortie, who specifies that the risk of complications is only one in 3,000.
Last year, the MUHC performed 115 kidney transplants, 17 of which were from living donors.
living donors
In Canada, 26% of kidney transplants are from living donors, according to the most recent data from the Canadian Organ Failure and Transplant Registry. Nearly half of living donors are not relatives of the recipient, it is specified.
“It’s a godsend. Living organ donation is an extraordinary gesture. It moves me a lot, ”says Mr. Beauvillier, his throat knotted with emotion.
“I wouldn’t do it for anyone, but Jocelyn deserves to be done for him,” says Mr. Lortie.
“He was a very involved person, not only on the field, but also outside. He helped a lot of young people who encountered family difficulties or problems other than in sport, ”he underlines.