With stakes high, Regina woman waiting for transplant says pause in organ donation program is frightening

"It was like you got punched in the gut type of feeling," Krystal Graham says of learning that Saskatchewan's organ donation program would be temporarily suspended.

The province's decision to pause the program came earlier this week, amid a surge in COVID-19 cases that is straining hospital resources.

Most procedures will be paused indefinitely, the province confirmed during a press conference on Thursday.

Graham is awaiting a second liver transplant after a rare genetic liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis attacked her first transplant, which she got at age 24 for the same reason. 

Now 37, the stakes are high for the Regina woman.

Her health is quickly declining, and doctors tell her that if she doesn't get another transplant in the next few months, her chance of survival falls to 50 per cent. 

"I'm scared.… I wasn't really scared before because I've been through a transplant before," she said. "And now I just feel a little bit stressed about it, because there's nothing I can do about it."