Pinjarra man to celebrate life at Transplant Games

“I gained weight very quickly, 12kg in 10 days, and became very irrational, not thinking clearly,” he said.

“My wife put me in the plane, I was pretty unaware of what was going on.

“The doctors told me I was 12 hours away from death, if I had been on the next flight I would have died.

“In the hospital I was in an induced coma for two days.

“I was stabilised but my liver and kidney functions were both at 10%.”

Mr Coman’s kidney recovered, but his liver didn’t.

After one month of medical tests he was told by the doctors he had three months left if he didn’t receive a new functional liver.

On April 26, 2014, only four weeks after receiving the bad news he got the call that saved his life.

“We cried a lot,” he said.

“It was very emotional.”

He was transplanted a new liver three days later and had a very quickly recovery.

According to his doctors, Mr Coman’s liver failure would’ve been related to hepatitis C, a viral disease he had been suffering since 1974 and that had been slowly taking the toll on his health.

“I wasted by teen years,” he said.

“The sickness was caused by my own past mistakes.

“My bad mistakes caught up with me in my late 50s.

“I just want to be thankful, I don’t want to just use it [life], I want to invest it.”

After recent treatment, his tests have shown no signs of the virus. 

Mr Coman will participate in this year’s Australian Transplant Games in Sydney, coming up in September.

He will take part in swimming, Dragon Boat Racing and a 5km walk to raise awareness about organ donation.

The Transplant Games are held every two years to celebrate the success of transplantation and to encourage Australian families to join the national tissue and organs donor list.

Every two years transplant recipients, donor families, living donors, people on dialysis and people awaiting a transplant come from all over Australia to participate.

“For recipients, participation is a way of saying ‘thanks’ to their donor families; for donor families it’s a way to honour their loved one’s gift of life,” Transplant Australia chief Chris Thomas said.

Both Mr Coman and Mr Thomas said they encourage people to register as an organ and tissue donor.

“People have no idea how many lives [they] could save,” Mr Coman said.

“I’m alive thanks to generous people.

“I understand losing someone is a grief but I understand also the thankfulness of having life as a recipient.”

To join the donor register go to www.donatelife.gov.au.

To help Mr Coman to get to Sydney go to www.gofundme.com/2gfs72mk.