Donor Hero: Brian - My Brother Boof

My brother Brian (Boof) was born on September the 10th 1958.He enjoyed everything about life. In high school he followed my Dad into the golfing world, which proved to be an interest he did very well at. He ended up with a handicap of 1. He played lots of competition golf winning many awards, including getting a hole in one at our local club. My brother loved many different sports, he played local grade cricket . Boof also loved fishing and in later years taught himself the guitar. Needless to say any party or gathering there was a usual sing-a –long. His love of fishing led to his fateful accident. In August 2015 Boof and his brother-in-law decided to launch his boat at Bonny Hills near Port Macquarie N.S.W. A little while into their fishing trip a set of rolling swell came through unexpectedly capsizing their boat. Brian frantically called out to his brother in law in which he held onto the boat swimming around it calling out to him. At this point another lot of swell came through pushing the boat and my brother into submerged rocks. This broke his leg which was a compound fracture at the ankle and below the knee.

His brother in law helped him into shore where people that had witnessed the event were waiting to assist them.

Brian was taken to Port Macquarie Hospital undergoing theatre to save his leg. At first the Doctors wanted to place a rod through his leg to repair it but were unable to due to him having a knee replacement in previous years. Brian over the next few weeks went to theatre on several occasions to clean the sand and foreign bodies, infection out of his wound. He placed in a halo type brace to secure his leg and after a few weeks came home.

This procedure of going to theatre continued even after coming home as many infections reoccurred.

On January 13th 2016 I rang him saying I was going to visit him his reply was,

“My leg is burning again sis don’t come I’d say I’ll be going back to hospital”.

And yes he went back to theatre again.

After this operation a pick line was put in, this allowed him to come home once again.

During all this happening my brother and his wife sold their family home at Lake Cathie and purchased a property at Wauchope N.S.W. This had been a dream of Boof’s.

In mid February my brother was rushed to hospital suffering chest pain, this turned out to be clots on his lungs. He was admitted to hospital again and was treated to remove the clots.

On Thursday the 25 th February 2016 I spoke to him about helping him move and his words were “Don’t worry sis the mates got a horse trailer and he and a couple of fellas will do it “

They moved in on the 27th February 2016 he was extremely happy and treated himself to a beer on his back deck overlooking his property.

On Sunday afternoon 28 th February was received a phone call from his 16 year old daughter saying they had rung an ambulance as something was going on with Brian.

The minutes felt like hours until my sister in law rang stating “Jann its not good they are preparing him to go to the John Hunter Hospital in the rescue helicopter.

I then had the dreaded task of going to inform my parents Dad-85, Mum-82.

We travelled to the John Hunter and waited for the Helicopter to arrive,we were there waiting at the helipad to meet Brian and see him into the hospital.

We waited for what seemed to be an eternity in the ICU waiting room for the Doctors to assess him. Eventually we were allowed in to see him he looked very peaceful but we knew things were not good.

The Doctors had a meeting with us informing us that Brian had suffered a massive brain bleed and he was showing no response. The Doctors informed us that they would perform more tests the next day to confirm his condition.

We took turns spending time with him until the early hours of the morning, hoping that this was all a dream and that he would wake up and be his normal self, this was not meant to be. On the Monday afternoon he was pronounced dead, and it was confirmed by our family, he would be a donor .

Due to his medical condition he was able to donate 2 kidneys and a liver.

At around 3 am Monday the 1st March Brian was taken to theatre. My sister in law played to him his favourite song Blackbird.

Brian’s donation helped save 3 people ,in which we have had a letter from one of the kidney recipients who is doing really well. Our dream would be to meet these people one day and tell them the stories of my brother.

Brian left a wife and 4 children and 3 grandchildren.