Lawyers Saving Lives
By Sam Marr, TLA Past President
For over 25 years I suffered from a serious liver disease. It did not slow me down, but it was a constant
part of my life. In January 2012, my condition deteriorated to the point that I was placed on the organ
donor waiting list.
It soon became apparent that I might not receive a new liver in time. The harsh reality was that I
would only receive a new liver after I became sick enough to move to the top of the organ transplant
waiting list. There are currently 1,500 Ontarians waiting for a life-saving transplant. Unfortunately,
every three days someone in Ontario dies waiting for an organ.
My wife Susan and I learned that it was possible to receive a living donation, where someone would
donate a part of their liver to me. Miraculously after the surgery, the liver in both the donor and
recipient regenerates in size. When you think about it that is pretty amazing!
My wife together with some other close family and friends, whose generosity I will never forget,
offered to be my donor, but testing demonstrated that they were not suitable candidates. Susan then
made it her mission in life to try to find someone to save my life. She launched an amazing and
extensive email and media campaign in the fall of 2012. To my amazement, a number of people came
forward and expressed a willingness to be tested as a potential donor for me. Some were people we
knew and some were complete strangers. Several people were in the process of being tested or
scheduled for testing, when I got the word in early November that a suitable candidate had been found
for me.
The donor wished to remain anonymous. The surgery proceeded on November 21st and was a success. I
returned to work in March 2013 and the future looks promising. To this day I do not know the identity
of the person who saved my life, and to say they have my eternal gratitude is a completely inadequate
way of expressing my feelings.
In the law business we often see the worst of mankind. However, this experience has shown me what I
always suspected was true: many, many people have goodness at their core, and are looking for ways
to express that goodness.
Making your law firms a place where there are opportunities for the lawyers and staff to help the
broader community is good for business. Association retention rates is one of the biggest problems
facing our profession, and young lawyers who grew up with the ethos of volunteerism, are looking for
their firms to provide them with these opportunities at work.
People have a deep-seated desire to do things that matter and which address our need to do our part
to make this world a better place.
I was one of the lucky ones that found a real hero. But many are not that lucky. Organ donation is one
of the true miracles of modern science. When I was first diagnosed in the 1980s, organ donation was
not commonplace or successful in the long run. Today, people live a long time with bright futures
thanks to the advances made in organ transplantation.
Live donation, while perhaps the ultimate in self-sacrifice, should ideally be unnecessary. The reason
live donation is necessary is because, unfathomably, only 23% of Ontarians have registered their
Issue 1 – September 2013
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consent to donate organs upon their death. Even worse is that only 15% of eligible Toronto residents
have registered.
Everyone is a potential organ and tissue donor, regardless of his or her age. The oldest Canadian organ
donor was over 90 years old, while the oldest tissue donor was 102. One donor can save up to eight
lives through organ donation as well as enhance the lives of up to 75 others through tissue donation.
An organ donor registration rate of 23% is truly a tragedy. People are dying waiting for an organ, while
organs are simply buried and wasted in the face of this colossal need. Many people want to do the
right thing, but they need help in getting to where they want to go. How did Susan succeed in
encouraging so many people to help me? It was not because I am a special person, but because she
told our story in a beautiful way, and explained to people what was possible and how to do it.
Of course people don’t want to think about their own mortality. Trust me, I have been there and done
that, and I don’t blame them. Who really wants to think about death; certainly not me!
However, if people knew how important this is, and how easy it is to register to be an organ donor,
then they will agree to become organ donors.
They also need to know that for those who are left behind, organ donation can provide comfort as they
grieve their loss. TLA President Miriam Young recently shared with me the story of the death of her
father, when she was only 15 years old. At her father’s funeral Miriam said:
“My family’s initial reaction was to say “no”. However, as the doctor spoke about all the people
whose lives would be saved and touched by the donation of my father’s organs, we agreed to go
through with it.
I like to think that right now a little girl might be holding her daddy’s hand and asking him to
live . . . and he’ll be able to.”
Now that my term as President of the TLA is over, I am working with the Trillium Gift of Life Network
(TGLN). I am trying to encourage law firms to set up a drive for employees to become organ donors. It
is all done online, and registering only takes a couple of minutes.
TGLN will gladly assist law firms to run a registration drive – it’s easy to do. They have designed an
innovative workplace program that is simple to plan and execute, with support provided. A key aspect
of the campaign includes the creation of a unique page by an organization on the beadonor.ca website.
Through this unique page, an organization can track its campaign progress against a pre-set goal in real
time. This makes the initiative exciting and encourages engagement in the workplace. If you would
like any information on setting up such a drive, please feel free to contact me at
smarr@lmklawyers.com.
I urge you to help save lives by signing up to be an organ donor at beadonor.ca, and by encouraging
your employees and colleagues to do the same. Registering to become a donor is the ultimate way to
“give back” to society, and one day each person who registers to be an organ donor will potentially
help save the lives of eight people who are in desperate need of a life-saving organ transplant.
Then, some fortunate little girl will have a daddy for many years to come.