Matt Gobey has conquered gruelling Spartan races and now he’s facing the biggest obstacle of his life.
The Ottawa firefighter, husband and father of two has end-stage liver disease.
“I’ve been informed by numerous doctors now that there is no fix for whatever’s wrong with me other than a transplant,” Gobey tells CTV News Ottawa. “They still don’t have an actual definitive diagnosis of what’s causing all my problems…I’ve been largely stable that whole time until this kind of the end of this past summer.”
Gobey is on the transplant list for a deceased donor but because the full severity of what’s going on with his liver isn’t captured by some of the criteria used to determine who is the highest priority on that list, doctors recommended he go the living donor route, he said.
“My husband will die if he doesn’t get a liver and we just have to wait and that’s impossibly heavy to think about, you know, and to go through it has just been really hard,” said Gobey’s wife Michèle-Laure.
She’s running social media accounts set up to help find a match.
“A hero might mean just sharing our post, spreading the information around because we don’t need 1,000 people to apply, we just need one right person,” she said.
An ideal donor for Gobey must be
- 16 to 60 years old
- A+ or A-, O+ or O- blood type
- Be a healthy weight for their height
- In good health without cancer, diabetes, kidney or heart disease
Those interested in becoming a living donor first needs to complete an extensive health history form through the University Health Network’s Living Liver Donor Program.
Ottawa resident Heather Badenoch donated part of her liver to a stranger a few years ago.
“It was easily one of the best things I have ever done,” Badenoch said.
“Before anything goes ahead there’s lots of testing, lots of conversations. And then when the surgery goes ahead, they take amazing care of you. I was six days in the hospital in Toronto and then came home to Ottawa to keep recovering.”
Right now, there are more people in need of a transplant than organs available.
“Their liver has the capacity to grow back, and they can go back and have a completely normal life following this donation, this gift of life support someone else,” said Dr. Nazia Selzner, the University Health Network’s director of the living donor liver program.
As Gobey waits for that gift of life, the disease is taking a toll.
“I just can’t will myself to do things that I used to do a lot and I just tire out a lot quicker during the day,” he said.
“Just to see someone be so sick that, you know, you can noticeably see the progress of how difficult, how taxing something is physically on them, that’s been hard,” Michèle-Laure added.
Gobey says he’s looking forward to spending more time with his kids and getting back to work—a career he loves.
“It’s been pretty equal parts overwhelming and humbling to see just how much momentum this has taken on already,” Gobey said. “I’m feeling pretty optimistic about it overall. It’s just been challenging for me and my family in the present.”
