From coma to Team Canada: One teen’s second chance at life through organ donation
"I’m forever grateful for my donor. I wasn’t able to meet them … it’s anonymous. But I sent them a letter saying you saved my life. You brought me back. You gave a 17-year-old another chance.”
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When Andrew Herring, a Brown University student and varsity squash player, came down with a case of mono, caused by the Epstein-Barr virus, he thought nothing of it. He felt completely healthy one day, and the next day he was just a little under the weather. He had some symptoms, such as tiredness, but they weren’t severe.
“It’s the everybody virus, you know?” he said, when discussing how non-serious he thought his illness was.
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But then things took a dark turn, and quickly. Andrew turned completely yellow. His liver was failing. And then he slipped into a coma, all in a matter of days.
“It happened incredibly quickly,” said Andrew, a Toronto native. “I went into an eight-day coma, and really, it’s so traumatic on the brain that when I arrived, really all I can remember is going to the hospital and then waking up from my coma post-surgery.”
It’s not typical for the Epstein-Barr virus to cause liver failure, but in some cases, it can attack the body’s ribonucleic acid, necessary for cell function, and make more virus particles. The immune system tries to defend against the virus, but in the process, destroys liver cells so quickly that it cannot function.
He spent just over a week at Toronto General Hospital, and in that time, his illness got so severe that his name shot to the top of the donor list for a new liver, making him Canada’s number 1 liver transplant recipient. He received one while he was in a coma, and when he woke up, he did so to a new scar and a new future, and no recollection of what had happened.
“All those intricacies and what happened in between are erased from my memory,” he said. “What happened with me is a one in 50 million chance.”
Waking up with a new liver and an uncertain future
Andrew wasn’t aware of what was going on with him while he was in a coma, but when he woke up and saw the scar on his body, he realized that “something’s different.”
“I knew that I had a liver transplant,” he said. “Just seeing the giant scar on my chest was a bit of an eye opener.”
While Andrew came to the conclusion that he had undergone a serious surgery pretty quickly, his acceptance of his new reality didn’t quite register in the same rapid manner. He notes that it took him some time to realize that the life he had just over a week ago isn’t the same one he’d be leaving the hospital with.
“Waking up from a coma and having that missing time and not knowing what had happened between, ‘Oh, I feel a little sick,’ to ‘What just happened?’” he said. “I knew my life was changing for sure,” he said.
Once he awoke from the coma, he was forced to contend with the aftermath. He spent three weeks in the hospital, lost 35 lbs and much of his muscle mass, and couldn’t move or speak. He also had to take a cocktail of different medications to ensure that his body wouldn’t reject his new organ, which presented another unique challenge.
Recovering from emergency organ transplant
Andrew, an extrovert at heart, spent six months “out of life” after his surgery because he had to take the time to recover. He had to learn how to do things that he had been doing on his own for much of his life all over again. He underwent extensive rehabilitation and physical recovery to regain his motor abilities. Since it was around the time COVID hit, he also had to do all this fairly alone.
“I’m very extroverted, so it was really tough,” he said. “I was so immune suppressed that I couldn’t see anyone. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t lift anything above five lbs for a very long time.”
While he sees himself as someone who likes to focus on the positive, looking toward the future to where he was going, the darker moments had their way of taking a toll on him when he couldn’t find the silver lining.
“There were a couple of moments where I had basically an identity crisis or something like that, where I’d say, I’m a different person now,” he said. “I feel different. I act different. Life has changed.”
When he was finally able to see his friends, he sometimes felt as though he could no longer relate to them, often feeling like a fake version of himself.
He didn’t allow himself to dwell on those moments, though. It was crucial for him to reach milestones in his recovery, such as being able to play squash again, seeing his friends outside, or even just going back to school—all of which he accomplished.
“There have been some really tough moments, but you can’t dwell on that. You can’t continue to feel like that because it’s a waste of a second chance. It’s a waste of life. It’s a waste of really just someone giving me the gift of life, and I’m so thankful for my donor,” he said.
Andrew received his liver from a deceased donor from British Columbia, through the team at the University Hospital Network’s (UHN) Ajmeera Transplant Centre.
Reclaiming his life
Today, Andrew is ecstatic about his progress because not only did he survive the ordeal, but he “became the person” he wanted to be.
At Brown University, he now plays varsity squash, but that’s not all he does. He’s working a summer internship, studying music and computer science, and representing Canada in the 25th World Transplant Games in Dresden, Germany.
The games bring together those touched by organ donation, whether patients, families of deceased donors, or living donors, to celebrate and spread awareness about the sheer importance of organ donation on a global scale.
He notes that out of all his milestones, being able to be a part of the games as well as play for varsity at Brown are huge.
“It’s so important because it shows the world and myself that I am better and I am who I want to be,” he said.
He notes that the event he went through “actually motivates” him because of how far he’s come.
“This has not held me back. It has only pushed me forward.”
He wants his participation in the games to send a message of hope and resilience, because he had to have both to get where he is today. He wants people to know that having a transplant isn’t the end. It’s just a new beginning.
“It’s being able to show people, the world, your country, everyone that a transplant saves lives and it pushes lives to be better and it … brings people together and I’m so excited to be able to meet the squash team for Team Canada and show that all my hard work for the past three years has paid off.”
After having gone through something so life-changing and coming out on the other side of his recovery better than he could imagine, Andrew wants others to know just how vital it organ donation truly is because it saved his life.
“It gives people the gift of life. I’m forever grateful for my donor. I wasn’t able to meet them … it’s anonymous. But I sent them a letter saying you saved my life. You brought me back. You gave a 17-year-old another chance,” he said. “So, if you’re able to, it would help so many people … transplants are an incredible thing, and we need more of it.”
