One October night, RCMP Officer Bill Anger woke up in his Vancouver Island home feeling like someone was standing on his chest. “I calmed myself down and wrote it off to a bad dream,” he said.  Then he noticed that he was always short of breath and even had difficulty going up a few stairs.

When he finally went to a doctor, Bill was diagnosed with amyloidosis - a rare liver disease affecting only one in eight million, which causes a build-up of fibrous tissue in the body. The disease had also enlarged his heart. Bill needed a liver and a heart transplant.

One of Bill’s cousins discovered that Dr. Angelica Hahn at
London Health Sciences Centre was one of only two doctors in Canada researching amyloidosis.  Originally from London, Bill was already going there with his 12-year old daughter to spend Christmas with family. Dr. Hahn agreed to see him, arranging a number of appointments and tests.  “Dr. Hahn went way beyond anything I had ever seen,” Bill comments. “I now refer to her as my guardian angel.”

Bill applied for a transfer to London. The world-class medical treatment at LHSC was secondary to ensuring his daughter was with family if the worst happened. Bill’s health was deteriorating – he was passing out frequently, and could barely make it up a few stairs. “As a single parent I was more worried about her than what was happening to me,” Bill said.  “The odds of receiving one organ for transplant isn’t all that great when you figure in all the variables involved, so I wasn’t holding out a lot of hope, knowing I needed two.”

Bill and his daughter moved to London at the end of February. In the spring he was tested, found to be a suitable transplant candidate and immediately obtained a cell phone and a pager.
While waiting for “the call,” Bill attended physiotherapy, where he met several transplant recipients at exercise class. “I couldn’t believe how active and upbeat these people were, some of them only a couple weeks post-transplant,” said Bill.  “It was a real inspiration, and gave me something to work towards.”

In July, Bill’s furniture had just arrived from out west and was barely unloaded when he received the call to be at the Hospital in one hour. Once in the operating room, cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon Dr. Richard Novick and his team completed the heart transplant; then Dr. Bill Wall, Director of LHSC’s Multi-organ Transplant Program, and his team started the liver transplant. Both surgeries took a total of 13 hours. It was only the third liver/heart transplant in Canada.

Bill spent the next 15 days in the Transplant Unit. Physiotherapy took place most mornings and the staff gave Bill an encouraging nudge when he did not feel like participating.  “I received outstanding care,” he said.  “The staff was absolutely incredible and they made a very difficult time a lot easier.”

Bill has a new life - working out three to four times a week, and doing things he thought he would never do again. “My family can’t believe I’m the same guy that was barely moving, and my daughter is glad to have her dad back.”

“The chance of restoring people to good and active and productive lives in the community has never been as good as it is today because of the advances in transplantation,” says Dr. Wall.

Bill Anger is a testimony to leading a productive post-transplant life. Not only does he continue to work, Bill also advocates for organ-donor awareness. His journey of care led him to give of his time as well, in order to help the Hospital meet its needs. His experience at LHSC led him to organize a fundraising barbeque at RCMP “O” Division, and he has since volunteered at other community-based fundraisers too.

Bill is quick to thank all the people that helped him during his illness. “During my time in the Hospital, I was treated extremely well by every single person, not just the medical staff,” he says.  “They probably don’t hear it from many patients as our contacts are brief, but all the patients are thankful and appreciate their professionalism very much.”