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Kate Hansen literally loves coming to work.
The 36 year old property manager at Ray White Lara doesn’t take any day for granted.
On Sunday, August 12, 2020, Kate Hansen died.
For a whole 15 minutes.
Kate, who was desperately ill and in need of a kidney and pancreas transplant, was brought back to life by paramedics using CPR for 90 minutes.
It was her 32nd birthday.
Kate, who has had Type 1 diabetes since she was four, had been on the organ transplant list for seven and a half years and she was having dialysis three times a week.
Kate knew the odds were stacked against her.
On Melbourne Cup Day in 2013 she crashed her car after a seizure brought on by high blood pressure and damaged both her kidney and pancreas to such a serious extent that she required a double transplant.
She woke up 12 days later and spent the next two years in recovery. Kate recalls how challenging it was waiting for the phone call to inform her whether they’d found an organ donor for her.
Fortunately for Kate, she finally got the call in 2019 that a family had agreed to donate their loved one’s organs.
"I was literally given the gift of life, through a new kidney and pancreas," she says.
Her story has been told on SBS TV, Apple TV and was a part of a national documentary called Dying to Live. The night the show aired was the same day as her double organ transplant operation.
“The statistics for organ donation are very grim. Currently there are 1806 people of which there are between 65 to 80 children on the national waiting list to receive a transplant today. Currently 1 in 5 people that are on the waiting list will die waiting,” Kate said.
Kate is an ambassador for the Zaidee's Rainbow Foundation. who for the past 17 years have been campaigning to increase the national donation rate.
Zaidee died at the age of 7 years and 22 days from a burst blood vessel in her brain called a cerebral aneurysm. At the time of Zaidee’s death the Turner family had been registered organ and tissue donors for four years.
Zaidee donated her organs and tissues at the Royal Children’s Hospital and was the only child that year in Victoria to be an organ and tissue donor under the age of 16 years, as were her wishes at the time.
From Zaidee's gift, the lives of seven people were improved or saved.
Zaidee’s parents, Kim and Allan, then founded Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation 16 years ago to raise awareness of the need for increased organ and tissue donor rates in Australia in memory of Zaidee and her legacy.
“We are just asking people to have the discussion with their loved ones to understand their wishes if they would be an organ and tissue donor or not, as Zaidee did a few months before she died,” Kate says.
“Australia is ranked 21st in the world for organ donation. In Spain, where the system is an Opt-Out, there’s no-one on a waiting list, not one person.”
“In Australia you have to Opt-In to become a donor. Many people don’t bother, so we need to start a social movement. I also want more people to donate blood, it all helps.”
The property manager has started studying for her real estate licence as she is passionate about helping people.
“I started in real estate 13 years ago, and I love working for Jo Boothroyd. The office is so supportive and patient with me. I have never felt so happy at work, I love work. I am grateful to be able to come to work. I don’t take one day for granted.”
For more information go to
https://www.donatelife.gov.au/
https://www.zaidee.org/
To read more stories like this, head to our latest edition of the White Report here.
