Fifteen years after a groundbreaking liver operation, a 71-year-old Kahnawake resident is outliving her life expectancy.
Mavis "Connie" McArdle became the first woman in Canada to be hooked to a pig's liver until the liver of a deceased 50-year-old human donor became available just before Christmas in 1994.
"To me, I thought that was the greatest gift that anyone could have ever given me," said McArdle, who works three days a week as production assistant at Kahnawake's Eastern Door newspaper and volunteers in the community.
She was kept alive for several hours thanks to the swine liver, which sustained her after she fell into a coma.
"We're told, on average, patients live about ten years after a liver transplant, but Mavis has now gone more than 15 and says she plans to live at least 20 more," said CTV's Herb Luft, who covered the story of McArdle's transplant 15 years ago and met with her again Thursday.
After McArdle's procedure, The Royal Victoria Hospital performed the same operation on two other patients, but neither survived.
The rare procedure was performed on McArdle because there wasn't any other choice, said transplant surgeon Jeffrey Barkun.
"We were forced with a desperate situation. We called upon a desperate measure," he said in 1995.
The procedure has not been used since that time due to the "theoretical transmission of pig pathogens to humans," said Barkun, but the US Centre for Disease Control confirmed there was no evidence of infection of cross-contamination.
Fifteen years later, McArdle feels as though she has won a second chance at life.
"My lottery ticket was this liver," she said.
