A dying woman was rejected by her partner for a partial liver transplant because she had been drinking alcohol whilst on the waiting list.
Amanda Husk, 36, was on life support for three months while waiting for a much-needed organ.
However, he was denied a transplant because doctors discovered he had relapsed into alcoholism before being admitted to hospital.
Despite Husk agreeing to enter an addiction treatment program once she got her new liver, her heartbroken family has now been told she only has weeks to live.
“This was a wake-up call for her. She wanted to take advantage of every advantage and opportunity to get the transplant and rebuild her life,” her partner Nathan Allen said. CTV News.
The 36-year-old was on life support for three months while waiting for a much-needed organ.
Amanda Husk was denied a liver transplant because she had been drinking alcohol while on the waiting list.
Allen volunteered to be a donor because his blood type matched that of the donor.
However, doctors at Ontario's University Health Network rejected the transplant request, citing “minimal abstinence outside of a hospital setting.”
Allen's next move is to get Husk to Europe where a transplant is possible, but he is concerned she may not survive that long.
“We were told last week that she has a few weeks left to live, maybe a month if we're lucky,” Allen said, explaining that treatment could cost $300,000.
“I'm going to do whatever I can to save her life, as medical professionals should do here.”
Husk began drinking as a teenager and struggled to control his addiction.
The heartbreaking case raises ethical questions about addiction treatment.
Currently, for a variety of reasons, there are approximately 600 people waiting for a liver transplant. Approximately 1 in 10 people who receive a transplant for alcoholic liver disease will resume drinking.
Debra Selkirk, whose husband Mark died in 2010 after being denied a liver transplant because of his drinking, slammed the decision.
Allen volunteered to be a donor because his blood type was a match.
However, doctors at Ontario's University Health Network rejected the transplant request, citing “minimal abstinence outside of a hospital setting.”
Allen now wants to transfer Husk to Europe for a transplant, but is concerned she may not survive much longer.
Her partner, Nathan Allen, said she vowed to enter an addiction treatment program after her transplant, but was still rejected.
“Life-saving procedures are being carried out based on perceived inappropriate behavior,” she said.
“People are not being turned away because they didn't exercise, or they worked too much, or they didn't sleep enough, or they didn't follow their doctor's orders.”
“In the case of Nathan and Amanda, we are witnessing someone being told, 'You didn't follow your doctor's orders, so we can't help you. We're going to have to let you die,'” she said.
Selkirk is campaigning for more compassion for people with liver failure caused by alcohol abuse.
Dr. Saumya Jayakumar, an Edmonton liver transplant surgeon who was not involved in Husk's case, explained that transplant standards are usually fairly uniform across Canada.
“It's a precious gift. It's a limited resource,” she said. “As you can imagine, making these decisions can cause a great deal of emotional distress for team members.”
“We can give you a new liver, but unless we can change all the circumstances that led to the liver failing, have we really helped you?” she said.
“I would say every transplant centre in Canada has challenges both in accessing mental health funding for patients and accessing mental health professionals for their transplant programs,” she said.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, more than 45,000 people died in the United States in 2022 from alcohol-related liver disease.
About 29,000 of the dead were men and the remaining 16,000 were women.
Husk began drinking alcohol as a teenager and struggled with addiction into adulthood.
Her plight raises ethical questions about treating people with addiction.
In general, alcoholic liver disease is more prevalent in men than in women, but as more women are drinking alcohol than before, the incidence rate among women is also on the rise.
The disease causes symptoms such as abdominal pain, fatigue and jaundice, and women are at higher risk of death.
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Hospital's Smit Heart Institute found that women with fatty liver disease linked to alcohol consumption have nearly twice the risk of dying over a given period of time compared to men with the same disease.
Doctors think this may be because women produce less of the enzymes that break down alcohol than men and generally weigh less and retain less water in their bodies.
“While we cannot comment on specific cases due to patient privacy, we can say that there are multiple criteria for living donor eligibility, two of which are blood type and willingness. Recipient criteria are managed jointly by the Transplant Center and the Trillium Gift of Life Network,” UHN officials said.
