Brett Green was 21 years old when he first found out he would eventually need a liver transplant due to a rare, chronic liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). Ten years later, an alignment of circumstances finally went in the qathet region resident’s favour and he received the transplant he very much needed. Green's story will be the first episode in a Knowledge Network TV series called Transplant Stories, screening on November 19.
"I got diagnosed in 2013 and I started seeing a gastroenterologist in Vancouver named Eric Lam," said Green. "He would do maintenance procedures to keep me going for a little longer, until I got to a point where I needed a transplant." Although thousands of successful organ transplants happen every year in Canada, each one requires a rare alignment of circumstance, biology, teamwork, expertise and technology.
After multiple failed attempts at a transplant, finally in January of 2024, Green's luck changed. After a successful transplant, he and his wife and baby daughter could start living a semblance of a normal life once again. "So basically, I had to wait for somebody to pass away and then take their entire liver," said Green.
"There are a lot of things that need to line up for matches; blood type is definitely a big one, but there are other things as well." Green said when his symptoms started to worsen, causing insomnia and forcing him off work, his medical team started going through the pre-liver transplant tests and they .