DONATELIFE Week, Australia’s national awareness campaign for organ and tissue donation, will be marked this year from Sunday 27 July to Sunday 3 August.
It’s a time to encourage more Australians to register as organ donors and have the conversation with loved ones.
While four in five Australians support organ donation, only one in three are actually registered on the Australian Organ Donor Register, according to DonateLife.
For Lake Cathie resident Dennis Andrighetto, DonateLife Week is deeply personal.
In 1994, Dennis received a heart transplant, a moment he now calls the greatest gift of his life.
His story begins on a small hobby farm outside Canberra where Dennis lived with his wife, Karen, and their three young children.
A builder by trade, Dennis was nearing the end of a major construction project in Canberra when he became unwell following the flu.
After weeks of persistent illness, he was convinced to go to hospital.
Within an hour of being in the hospital and having a battery of tests, the cardiologist looked at Dennis.
“If there’s something serious, please let me know, because I have a wife and three young children,” Dennis remembers telling the doctor.
The response was blunt and life-altering.
“It looks like you need a heart transplant,” the doctor said.
At just 35-years-old, Dennis was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a serious condition that affects the heart’s ability to pump blood effectively.
Tests showed his heart was functioning at less than 20 percent.
Without a transplant, his prognosis was dire.
After six months of consultation and tests, Dennis and Karen were referred to the heart and lung transplant clinic at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.
Then, on 9 September 1994, exactly one year after his diagnosis, he received the call that would change his life.
A heart had been found.
By then, Dennis was mostly bed-bound.
A simple visit to the doctor would leave him recovering for days.
His heart was functioning at just 10 percent.
The transplant was a success. Just six days after surgery, Dennis walked out of the hospital and climbed three flights of stairs.
“The impact of organ donation is more than anyone could imagine,” he said.
“I always refer to my heart as a gift.
“Up to seven people received a gift. I received the heart, one person lungs, one person a liver, two people received a kidney each, and my old heart went to the children’s hospital and the valves were transplanted into children with faulty valves,” Dennis shared.
He’s been asked what it’s like living with someone else’s heart and his response is impactful.
“I don’t look at it and say that it’s someone else’s heart, I look at it as a very special gift that was given to me and I provide the best home and care that I can for it.”
Following the transplant, Dennis returned to building for another 27 years.
Not long after, the family also relocated to the Mid North Coast, where the milder climate better suited his health.
Dennis has long been an advocate for organ donation.
He has shared his story publicly and helped support others facing the uncertainty of the transplant waitlist.
“I had always agreed to be an organ donor, but I never expected to need a transplant myself.”
“I am grateful every day for the gift I was given and there are so many families out there waiting,” he said.
For Dennis Andrighetto, it wasn’t just his life that was saved. His family didn’t lose a husband and a father.
To learn more about organ and tissue donation, or to register as a donor, visit www.donatelife.gov.au.
By Luke HADFIELD
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