How an organ donation from cousin changed course of Ottawa man's life

Austin Carter struggled with asking friends and family to consider donating part of their liver. But he wanted to live.

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Published Jan 09, 2025  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  5 minute read

Family photo of cousins Sara Postle, left, who donated part of her liver to Austin Carter, at the University Health Network Hospital in Toronto in April 2024. Photo by Family Photo /Handout

How do you ask friends, family, even strangers, to consider undergoing difficult day-long surgery and a long recovery in order to give up two-thirds of their liver so that you can have a chance at life?

That was something Ottawa’s Austin Carter, 31, struggled with after learning in 2023 that he needed a liver transplant.

Carter had lived with liver disease most of his life. He was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis at age eight after experiencing swollen and sore joints and a distended abdomen, which can be a sign of liver disease. After spending weeks at CHEO and then Toronto General hospital, he was diagnosed with the condition he would continue to live with.

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Family photo of Austin Carter, who received a liver transplant from his cousin, Sara Postle, in Toronto in April 2024. Photo by Family Photo /Handout

In response to his diagnosis, Austin’s mother, Trish Carter, founded the Pediatric Liver Foundation to raise awareness and to offer support to help other families and children living with liver disease.

“There was nothing geared to children and liver disease at the time,” she said. She ran the organization, including an annual fundraising gala, for more than 12 years.

Carter’s illness, meanwhile, was closely monitored and largely controlled with daily medication. The boy who loved being active continued to run and play sports, including competitive taekwondo. As an adult, he travelled throughout Asia, creating an education-based business with a partner in Vietnam.

Aside from a couple of flare-ups, his health was stable and he lived a normal, adventurous, life, until he turned 30.

While in Vietnam, he became extremely sick and landed in the hospital. At first he thought it was food poisoning, but, after more tests, doctors determined he had sepsis and a blood clot, all of which had contributed to severely damaging his liver. The doctors told him he would need a liver transplant and should return home to stabilize and talk to doctors there.

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By the time he got back to Ottawa, Carter had lost 30 pounds. Medical staff helped to stabilize him and transplant officials told Austin and his family that the best path for a needed liver transplant would be to find a live donor. He was soon on a list of potential living liver donor recipients at Toronto’s University Health Network, the leading liver transplant centre in Canada.

Calgary resident Sara Postle, who donated part of her liver to her cousin, Austin Carter, in Toronto in April 2024. Photo by Family Photo /Handout

Carter said he struggled with asking family, friends and strangers to consider making such a sacrifice for him.

“Imagine going to your best friends and family members and asking them to go through 10 or 12 hours of surgery, to give up two-thirds of their liver, in fact months of inactivity and recovery time for you?” he said.

Carter said he did a lot of thinking about it before coming to a conclusion: “Yeah, I want to live. If any members of my family were in this situation, I would want them to ask me. This is what I should do.”

He wrote a letter detailing his situation and how people could apply to be a living liver donor if their blood type was a match. He made sure people knew it would not be an easy thing to do and that there were potential risks. His mother, Trish, helped send it to family and friends.

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Then they waited.

Trish said she would have donated “in a minute” if had been good for it, but she was older than the age cutoff.

Although he would not get official word from the transplant centre until a candidate had passed all the testing, Carter’s cousin, Sara Postle, a health-care worker and mother of two young children living in Calgary, gave him a heads-up that she was in the process of being tested and was eventually found to be a match.

“I went through a whole flood of emotions,” Carter said. He was in awe that his older cousin who he only knew from visits, who had pressing family and work demands, would step forward. He calls her a “superhero.”

That was early in 2024. The surgery was scheduled at the UNH hospital in Toronto for April 15.

Postle, who like her cousin, Austin, is active and fit, said she agreed almost immediately to get tested when she learned about his plight. Her own family supported her decision, although it ultimately meant she would be staying in Toronto for weeks after the surgery, far from her husband and young children.

To her, it was a natural response to someone in need who she could possibly help. She was surprised to learn that response was considered extraordinary by some.

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“I assumed 90 per cent of people would have done it — which is not the case. My friends said, ‘Are you crazy?’ I said, I would have done it for you, too.’”

Postle tried to explain to her children, six and eight, what was going to happen and why she was going to be away.

“I don’t think they quite understood. I said, ‘Austin’s liver is really sick. They are going to give him part of mommy’s liver.’”

While she was in Toronto, she talked to her kids every day. One day they came home from school to tell her they learned she was a “hero.”

Postle met Austin and his family in Toronto a few days before surgery. They would stay in a rented house for weeks after the surgery, where family would support them as they recovered.

She was anxious as the surgery approached. When she surfaced after 10 hours of surgery, one of her first thoughts was about how her cousin was doing.

Austin had the same question about his cousin when he woke up in a fog after 12 hours of surgery.

“I remember them telling me it went well and Sara was doing well.”

Calgary resident Sara Postle, who donated part of her liver to her cousin, Austin Carter, in surgery at Toronto on April 15, 2024, and her husband, Levi Stoddard, and children Piper Stoddard, left, and Lennox Stoddard, right, at the Calgary airport. Photo by Family Photo /Handout

Carter and Postle, along with Austin’s family, spent time together while the cousins rested, recovered, ate well and took walks.

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Both had been in good physician shape before the surgeries and both resumed being physically active.

When Postle returned home to Calgary, she was greeted at the airport by her husband and children, who were holding a sign that read: “We Love You, Welcome Home, Super Mom.”

She was off work for three months, but was back to wake surfing and other activities by summer.

Carter also returned to running and international travel after the transplant.

He and his fiancée planned to be back in Ottawa for the holidays — something Carter said he would celebrate with a new perspective on life.

“It is something I think about every day. I think about Sara and the gift that she gave and I think about the team at the hospital and friends and family who really stepped up,” Carter said.

Growing up with liver disease, Carter said he always felt that he would not have a long life. That feeling is shifting after the transplant. “I feel like I have got another opportunity.”

Carter said he wanted to share his story to help people understand the difference the gift could make “and to recognize what a hero Sara and people who donate are.”

More information on living liver donations is available online at  www.uhn.ca/Transplant/Living_Donor_Program/Pages/living_liver_donor.aspx

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