The Ottawa Citizen: ‘I want to live so badly’ - How Zach Colton survived for years without a bite to eat — Leave Well

A screen shot of article in the Ottawa Citizen featuring multi-organ transplant recipient Zach Colton — Screen grab of The Ottawa Citizen Online: Quintuple transplant recipient Zach Colton at Toronto General Hospital on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024.PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON /Postmedia

A rare genetic condition virtually shut down his digestive system. The Ottawa man waited 16 years for a rare five-organ transplant.s

Story by Blair Crawford | The Ottawa Citizen

Just days after skydiving at the Arnprior airport — his fourth such jump — Colton got the call giving him less than a day’s notice for the astonishing five-organ transplant he’d been waiting on for a decade. Colton, who lives with a rare genetic condition that has virtually shut down his digestive system, was to receive a new stomach, pancreas, liver, large intestine and small intestine in one day-long operation.

“The scariest thing I’ve ever done is being wheeled through those doors for the surgery,” said Colton, 35, in a video call from Toronto General Hospital. “That was terrifying. Getting the call and then having to keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
In a Facebook post on Oct. 25, a pale and thin Colton stands at the entrance to the Ajmera Transplant Centre at Toronto General.
“F—ing terrified,” he wrote. “But I’m here. I want to live so badly.”
A few hours later, surgeons would begin their work to give him that chance.