Jeanette Dempster may not be a household name in the swimming world, but she is making a splash all the same. While Canadians like Summer McIntosh were busy making waves — and collecting gold — at the Paris Olympics, Dempster, 72, was busy mining some gold of her own, winning four medals at the Canadian Transplant Games in Ottawa. Dempster topped the field in the 50-metre freestyle, 50-metre breaststroke, 50-metre backstroke and the 100-metre free.
Not too shabby for someone who underwent a heart transplant just six years ago.
It was 2018 and fortunately before COVID-19, which wound up delaying surgeries of all kinds as hospitals struggled to keep up with a huge influx of patients who had acquired the respiratory virus.
“The timing was perfect for my situation too, because I was really deteriorating quickly,” Dempster recalled.
Dempster was playing baseball 30 years ago when she went into cardiac arrest. She was 42, active, and was — at least she thought so — healthy.
The heart attack was brought on by what is called ventricular dysplasia and it was something that she had been born with. Affecting the right side of her heart. The atrioventricular (AV) node was not working as it should. It was determined that Dempster had right ventricular dysplasia, which means there was something that went wrong in utero as her heart was being developed.
“I ended up with an ICD device, which is an intracardiac defibrillator,” she said.
By 2018, her health was deteriorating and fortunately a donor heart was found. A six-hour surgery and a second procedure to clear up blood clots that had developed and Dempster had a new lease on life.
She still takes anti-rejection medication but has recently been taken off a monitoring regimen. That means no more blood tests and cardiac biopsies to make sure everything is going okay.
“It's an invasive thing,” she said of the procedure that involves a catheter being inserted through her neck and into her heart.
“They take five little pieces of heart to detect if there's any rejection,” Dempster said.
She credits cardiologist Dr. Paul Daly at the Toronto General Hospital for her regaining her health.
“He was phenomenal. I think he's the best, probably, in the world. Dempster said.
I think he's the best, probably, in the world
With her health improving post-transplant, Dempster decided to make the most of it, and took up swimming, something she had done in her 30s with the Brock Masters swim program.
Post-transplant, she returned to the pool, registering for Aquafit classed at the Welland YMCA, where she would in her words “at least have a daily routine.”
Dempster soon found herself swimming lengths of the pool after classes. She returned to the Brock program, where she was encouraged by fellow swimmer Chris McDonald, who is holder of provincial and national records, including a new record set last March in the 50-metre backstroke (39.43 seconds) in the 65-year-olds category to enter provincial competitions.
With COVID cancelling the Ontario Transplant Games, Dempster instead entered standard competitions.
“I surprisingly, did okay,” she said.
Fast-forward to this year, with the Canadian Transplant Games back on for the first time since the end of the pandemic, Dempster took her shot and made the most of it.
She also credited her coach with the Brock program, Gokhan Bozyigit, for helping her reach new levels.
“He was the first one to say, yes, you can do it.”
According to the Canadian Transplant Association, currently there are more than 4,000 Canadians currently on waiting lists for an organ transplant and some will die before a donor is found. In Ontario, people can sign up to be an organ donor upon their death by registering online or putting a sticker on their drivers’ licence. It is also recommended that people who intend to become an organ donor make their wishes known to their family.
Despite the overwhelming public support for organ donation, only around 20 percent of Canadians have registered their intentions to be donors.
In 2023, there were a total of 3,428 organ transplants performed in Canada, with 83 percent of transplants used organs from people who had died while the remaining 17 percent used living donor organs.
To CTA President Brenda Brown, the Games are a way for organ recipients to “celebrate the gift of life through sport and honour donors who make it all possible.”
Brown, who was the recipient of a kidney transplant, said it’s more likely someone will need an organ rather than be able to donate. “When you see what these recipients have been able to do with their second chances, it just affirms the importance of organ donation.”
Dempster, meanwhile, considers herself indebted to the donor for saving her life. She does not know the circumstances surrounding how the heart became available.
“They signed the card, and that sign of humanity was significant because it afforded me a second life,” Dempster said. “And that's probably one of the biggest reasons why I want to do this, is to show people that, you know, organ donation is very, very important.”
