Seven years ago, I sat on my deck trying to relax and read, but sat there crying instead. I was eight months pregnant, finished work for a year of maternity leave, and bored out of my mind after only three days. My boredom was short lived, though, as my daughter decided to make an early appearance, and that next day she was born. After years of dealing with infertility and two miscarriages, we had a perfect baby girl who we called Ryley.
Fast forward two months, and my husband and I stood in the hospital emergency room thinking that our daughter had a stomach virus, only to be told that our beautiful baby girl was going to need a heart transplant to live. She was born with a heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy or enlarged heart. Her heart was so big that it wasn’t able to pump blood through her body effectively, and what we thought was chubby baby fat, was fluid building up in her body, because she was in heart failure. My made-for-TV movie life was about to begin.
My daughter’s first haircut was when they shaved her head to put an IV in. Her first flight was in an orange helicopter, when she was airlifted to Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital. I didn’t even get to be with her for it. There were a lot of firsts that didn’t go as planned, but in January 2006, at only seven months of age, she received the gift of life—a new heart.
Since that day, Ryley has never looked back. She has done the things that all normal kids do—gymnastics, dance, soccer. She loves everything pink and princess. She wants to be an artist when she grows up. Unless you saw that faint scar on her chest, you wouldn’t know how close to death she came.
Ryley changed me as a person. I learned what was important in life. It’s not the material possessions or working long hours to move up in my career, it’s the time spent together. I found strength that I didn’t know I had. I became an advocate for her and for organ donation. I often surprise people when I tell them I’m now a public speaker—sharing Ryley’s story—as I am soft spoken. But it is a powerful story that teaches people how a little girl can triumph and touch so many people with her journey, all because another family made the decision to donate their child’s organs.
Talk to your family today about organ donation. Go to beadonor.ca to watch more about Ryley’s story and to learn how to register to be an organ donor in Ontario. One organ donor can save up to eight lives, like Ryley’s. Be a hero!
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