Re: What did you get for Fathers day 2011
Don't think any of us can top this....
by Beverley Ann D'Cruz
It's going to be near impossible for one Canadian man to top his Father's Day gift next year.
Dads around the world received colourfully wrapped ties, books and coffee mugs on Sunday. But Dana Cruickshank, 39, gave his father the ultimate Father's Day gift ? the gift of life.
Diabetic and undergoing dialysis for years, Dana's 67-year-old father, Arthur, lost one of his kidneys three years ago and was on the waiting list for a cadaver kidney. "The dialysis was keeping him alive, but he didn't have any quality of life and he was dying," Dana told CBC News. So, Dana did the one thing he could to alleviate his father's suffering ? he volunteered to give him a kidney.
The selfless decision shocked Dana's mother Doris. Even Arthur was initially reluctant to go along with his son's decision. Doris told CBC News: "Dana just said to me one day. 'Well, I guess Dad needs a kidney,' and I said, 'Well, yes I guess he does,' and he said, 'Well, I'm going to give him one.'"
Coincidentally, the surgery was scheduled for Friday, two days ahead of Father's Day at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, N.S. ? a fact that wasn't lost on the medical team at the hospital who were touched by the gesture. "I said, yeah, the ties and shirts my brother and sister give dad are going to fade in comparison," added Dana.
But perhaps the best news was that Arthur immediately started experiencing the benefits of the kidney transplant. "As soon as the new kidney was put in to him it started producing urine right away so he started feeling better before he was even out of anaesthesia," Dana said. "He's doing pretty good."
This heart-warming story of Dana and Arthur is the second of its kind this month concerning altruistic parent-child organ donations. Just last week a British woman was deemed as being the first person to donate her uterus to her daughter, who doesn't have one due to a rare condition. If successful, the daughter will have the same uterus she grew up in herself.
Would you donate an organ to a dying family member or friend?
