Ethel Branderhorst with her father, John Suk. Suk is the oldest person living with a functioning kidney transplant in Niagara and believed to be the oldest person in Canada to hold that title.
April 22 is a lucky day for John Suk.
The St. Catharines resident will celebrate his 95th birthday that day. He’ll also celebrate 22 years and one day since receiving the kidney transplant that helped him reach this milestone, making him the oldest person living with a functioning kidney transplant in Niagara.
He’s also believed to be the oldest person in Canada to hold that title.
“Everything important happened on my birthday,” Suk says.
Suk was 67 and two years into an active and healthy retirement with his wife, Anky, in 1998 when he was diagnosed with a rare condition that led to kidney failure.
Suk, a former book binder originally from the Netherlands, suddenly found himself in a near-death situation. He was placed in the care of Dr. Anthony Broski, a Niagara Health nephrologist who still cares for him today.
“Dr. Broski is the best,” says Ethel Branderhorst, Suk’s daughter. “He’s been good to our family. He’s been encouragement for dad. We really appreciate him.”
Suk was put on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. In the meantime, he would spend the next five years on dialysis three days a week.
On Easter weekend in 2003 and just a couple of days before his 73rd birthday, he got the call it was his turn for a transplant. It came at a turning point in transplant philosophy, Dr. Broski notes. Previously, there were concerns older adults wouldn’t be able to safely undergo the transplant operation or would be more susceptible to poor outcomes or death related to infections or cancers caused by complications of immune suppression.
“We dropped him off at the emergency (department) door and said goodbye. It was so hard. We didn’t know if he would survive the surgery.”
“In addition, kidney donations from deceased donors were and still are precious and limited resources and there were many younger people on waiting lists,” Dr. Broski says. “Fortunately, the transplant community decided to start pushing the boundaries in older patients to scientifically answer these questions, and Mr. Suk is living proof the decision to offer older patients kidneys was prudent.”
In that regard, Suk was a trendsetter, he adds. In 2023, an 87-year-old Markham man became the world’s oldest kidney transplant recipient, an achievement made possible by early older transplant patients, who helped shift the understanding of what was possible.
“The number doesn’t matter but the physicality related to age does matter,” Dr. Broski says. “If it weren’t for people like John getting a transplant at 72, this 87-year-old wouldn’t have gotten his. Age is not an absolute.”
Branderhorst and her husband drove Suk to Hamilton for the surgery, but that was all she or any of her siblings could do. Southern Ontario was in the throes of the SARS pandemic, and much like with COVID-19 protocols, she could only drop him off at the door of the hospital. No visitors were allowed, leaving Suk to go through the transplant and in-hospital recovery alone.
“We dropped him off at the emergency (department) door and said goodbye. It was so hard,” Branderhorst recalls. “We didn’t know if he would survive the surgery.”
As Suk remembers: “I went in and the next thing you know, I’m laying in bed. They put a catheter in me and the rest is history.”
On April 21, 2003, Suk got his new kidney, and with it “a new lease on life because he wasn’t on dialysis three times a week,” Branderhorst says. “That’s a part-time job.”
Suk and Branderhorst credit the expertise of Dr. Broski and prayers for the reason that 22 years later, he’s still here.
“It gave me reason to live,” Suk says.
Dr. Broski readily acknowledges his patient’s role in the success of the transplant.
Suk’s kidney was from a deceased donor. At the time he received it, the half-life of a deceased donor kidney was about nine years, meaning half of recipients still had a functioning kidney after that time while the other half needed to return to dialysis or had died, he explained.
More than 20 years later, Suk’s kidney function is better than people significantly younger than him.
“You have to give Mr. Suk credit,” Dr. Broski says. “Transplant recipients have to take their medication, take their health seriously and manage the risk of cancer, which is a real risk.”
Suk has had health challenges since his surgery and was recently admitted to Marotta Family Hospital for an issue unrelated to his kidneys. But as a man of faith, he’s overcome incredible odds, Branderhorst said, including achieving his most recent claim to fame.
“That’s quite incredible,” she says about her father being among the oldest people living with a functioning kidney transplant. “We know he’s proud of it. We’re happy for him.”
April is Be A Donor Month across Ontario, raising awareness about the importance of organ and tissue donation. About 1,500 people in Ontario are currently waiting for a lifesaving transplant. Visit BeADonor.ca to register to become a donor and learn more.
