- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,230
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
John Dickhout underwent a heart transplant on Jan. 25 and 22 days later, his cleaved chest still healing, typed out his speechless gratitude to the anonymous donor.
“How can simple words do justice to explain to anyone how their choice has given me the most significant, life-giving, perspective-changing gift of my life? You have given me my life back, and I am forever eternally grateful!”
And yet he didn’t know the half of it — how brave the heart had been.
It belonged to Adam Prashaw, who was born a girl, Rebecca, on April 22, 1993, but was transitioning to a man. And that wasn’t all. Diagnosed with epilepsy at age five, he underwent two lengthy brain surgeries to get the condition under control, the last in November 2015.
He lived through many — thousands, probably — mini-seizures that invisibly affected his academic life. He was, at times, bullied, never part of the cool crowd.
“Adam was judged his whole life, to some extent,” his mother Suzanne said Tuesday. “He has a very complicated story.”
Adam Prashaw.
Yet his parents speak of Adam as finally becoming the person he always was, with counselling, medications and a name change.
And, just as his new life was emerging, on a Friday night in his apartment building in downtown Ottawa, only momentarily away from visiting friends, a seizure struck while Adam was in the hot tub. They found him unconscious in the water. He would not survive, gone at age 22.
“He was happy and optimistic for the first time in a long time,” his mother continued. “And then the worst possible nightmare happened.”
Weeks later, out of the blue, came the letter from Dickhout, 53, a resident of Welland, Ont. The couple replied and, quite soon, identities were attached and Adam’s father, Rick Prashaw, 65, decided he needed to meet the recipient.
He travelled to Welland in June, put a stethoscope on John’s chest to hear his son’s heart beating, which he describes as strong and loud. “There were tears,” he said this week. “My boy was somehow alive, you know?”
At his Kanata condo, his sock feet were tapping on the floor. Dallas, the beautiful black-lab mix that belonged to Adam, hugged his knee.
Rebecca Prashaw before she became Adam Prashaw.
“Words, you know, are really difficult.”
Thursday comes, hopefully, a joyful turn. Dickhout, a former call-centre executive, has recovered so well he’s running in the five-kilometre event in the Canadian Transplant Games now underway in Toronto.
Several members of the Prashaw and Corbeil (Suzanne) families will be there — hearts, surely, welling.
“The easy answer is, because I can,” Dickhout answered, when asked why he’ll run. “It sounds silly but it’s absolutely true. In part it’s to honour Adam and Rick and his family. They’ve given me the ultimate gift. They’ve given me my life back and why wouldn’t I want to celebrate that and honour them?”
A father of two grown children, he now has a future to look forward to, like walking his daughters down the aisle or holding a grandchild in his arms, or trying a professional acting career. “Now I can pursue my dreams, right?”
John Dickhout, 53, of Welland, Ont., received Adam Prashaw’s heart. Dickhout is running in the Transplant Games this week to honour the donor and his family.
Though physically fit, he had what appeared to be a mild heart attack while in the Philippines in March 2013. But his organ was actually seriously diseased and, for the next three years, he was kept alive with a pacemaker and defibrillator. Full-time work was out of the question — he was out of breath just washing his hair. In October 2015, he went on the transplant list, his life on hold.
From the outset, he said this week, he wanted to know the identity of the donor.
“It means something different when there is a face, a name, a story, especially the depth of Adam’s story.”
Suzanne, an academic association executive, and Rick, a former parliamentary staffer, Catholic priest, and NDP candidate, have written at length about their son since his death.
Briefly, Rebecca was Suzanne’s fourth child and she was convinced she was carrying a boy — so much so, they took to calling the baby Adam for nine months. An energetic child who liked the limelight, Rebecca was clearly a “tom-boy” who liked sports, singing and acting but was never keen on dresses.
She later became a goalie in the Kanata minor hockey system (huge Habs fan, via Carey Price) and, because of her condition, had some struggles at school. But she prevailed, graduating from Holy Trinity and later Algonquin College. She adored animals and working with children, and took on work at Farm Boy and later at the Canadian Museum of Nature.
“She had a fierce desire to be her own person, independent and responsible,” wrote her mom.
Rick said Adam (actually a given name at birth) had registered as an organ donor and openly expressed his desire in conversations with Suzanne. His liver and kidneys helped three other recipients. Rick said, ironically, those organs went to women.
“I cried a little and smiled when I heard that a man had his heart.”
So did Adam Daniel (Rebecca) Prashaw make this third new life — hers, his — now someone else’s.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com.
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
“How can simple words do justice to explain to anyone how their choice has given me the most significant, life-giving, perspective-changing gift of my life? You have given me my life back, and I am forever eternally grateful!”
And yet he didn’t know the half of it — how brave the heart had been.
It belonged to Adam Prashaw, who was born a girl, Rebecca, on April 22, 1993, but was transitioning to a man. And that wasn’t all. Diagnosed with epilepsy at age five, he underwent two lengthy brain surgeries to get the condition under control, the last in November 2015.
He lived through many — thousands, probably — mini-seizures that invisibly affected his academic life. He was, at times, bullied, never part of the cool crowd.
“Adam was judged his whole life, to some extent,” his mother Suzanne said Tuesday. “He has a very complicated story.”
Adam Prashaw.
Yet his parents speak of Adam as finally becoming the person he always was, with counselling, medications and a name change.
And, just as his new life was emerging, on a Friday night in his apartment building in downtown Ottawa, only momentarily away from visiting friends, a seizure struck while Adam was in the hot tub. They found him unconscious in the water. He would not survive, gone at age 22.
“He was happy and optimistic for the first time in a long time,” his mother continued. “And then the worst possible nightmare happened.”
Weeks later, out of the blue, came the letter from Dickhout, 53, a resident of Welland, Ont. The couple replied and, quite soon, identities were attached and Adam’s father, Rick Prashaw, 65, decided he needed to meet the recipient.
He travelled to Welland in June, put a stethoscope on John’s chest to hear his son’s heart beating, which he describes as strong and loud. “There were tears,” he said this week. “My boy was somehow alive, you know?”
At his Kanata condo, his sock feet were tapping on the floor. Dallas, the beautiful black-lab mix that belonged to Adam, hugged his knee.
Rebecca Prashaw before she became Adam Prashaw.
“Words, you know, are really difficult.”
Thursday comes, hopefully, a joyful turn. Dickhout, a former call-centre executive, has recovered so well he’s running in the five-kilometre event in the Canadian Transplant Games now underway in Toronto.
Several members of the Prashaw and Corbeil (Suzanne) families will be there — hearts, surely, welling.
“The easy answer is, because I can,” Dickhout answered, when asked why he’ll run. “It sounds silly but it’s absolutely true. In part it’s to honour Adam and Rick and his family. They’ve given me the ultimate gift. They’ve given me my life back and why wouldn’t I want to celebrate that and honour them?”
A father of two grown children, he now has a future to look forward to, like walking his daughters down the aisle or holding a grandchild in his arms, or trying a professional acting career. “Now I can pursue my dreams, right?”
John Dickhout, 53, of Welland, Ont., received Adam Prashaw’s heart. Dickhout is running in the Transplant Games this week to honour the donor and his family.
Though physically fit, he had what appeared to be a mild heart attack while in the Philippines in March 2013. But his organ was actually seriously diseased and, for the next three years, he was kept alive with a pacemaker and defibrillator. Full-time work was out of the question — he was out of breath just washing his hair. In October 2015, he went on the transplant list, his life on hold.
From the outset, he said this week, he wanted to know the identity of the donor.
“It means something different when there is a face, a name, a story, especially the depth of Adam’s story.”
Suzanne, an academic association executive, and Rick, a former parliamentary staffer, Catholic priest, and NDP candidate, have written at length about their son since his death.
Briefly, Rebecca was Suzanne’s fourth child and she was convinced she was carrying a boy — so much so, they took to calling the baby Adam for nine months. An energetic child who liked the limelight, Rebecca was clearly a “tom-boy” who liked sports, singing and acting but was never keen on dresses.
She later became a goalie in the Kanata minor hockey system (huge Habs fan, via Carey Price) and, because of her condition, had some struggles at school. But she prevailed, graduating from Holy Trinity and later Algonquin College. She adored animals and working with children, and took on work at Farm Boy and later at the Canadian Museum of Nature.
“She had a fierce desire to be her own person, independent and responsible,” wrote her mom.
Rick said Adam (actually a given name at birth) had registered as an organ donor and openly expressed his desire in conversations with Suzanne. His liver and kidneys helped three other recipients. Rick said, ironically, those organs went to women.
“I cried a little and smiled when I heard that a man had his heart.”
So did Adam Daniel (Rebecca) Prashaw make this third new life — hers, his — now someone else’s.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com.
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
