The Ottawa Citizen: ‘I want to live so badly’ - How Zach Colton survived for years without a bite to eat
Screen grab of The Ottawa Citizen Online: Quintuple transplant recipient Zach Colton at Toronto General Hospital on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024.PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON /Postmedia
A rare genetic condition virtually shut down his digestive system. The Ottawa man waited 16 years for a rare five-organ transplant.s
Story by Blair Crawford | The Ottawa Citizen
Just days after skydiving at the Arnprior airport — his fourth such jump — Colton got the call giving him less than a day’s notice for the astonishing five-organ transplant he’d been waiting on for a decade. Colton, who lives with a rare genetic condition that has virtually shut down his digestive system, was to receive a new stomach, pancreas, liver, large intestine and small intestine in one day-long operation.
“The scariest thing I’ve ever done is being wheeled through those doors for the surgery,” said Colton, 35, in a video call from Toronto General Hospital. “That was terrifying. Getting the call and then having to keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
In a Facebook post on Oct. 25, a pale and thin Colton stands at the entrance to the Ajmera Transplant Centre at Toronto General.
“F—ing terrified,” he wrote. “But I’m here. I want to live so badly.”
A few hours later, surgeons would begin their work to give him that chance.
Read Zach’s full story In The Ottawa Citizen - March 14, 2024
Follow Zach on TikTok @zakcanteat
Register as an organ donor
Someone chose to Leave Well so that Zach Colton can live well. Be like them…
Register to be an organ and tissue donor.
This Canadian physician’s passion to improve organ donation practices began with one of his own patients.