Article content

Lauchie Walker’s gut is swelled up like a blimp. He is not in any immediate pain, but then pain, at this point, is the least of his concerns. The Inverness, Cape Breton, man’s liver is shot through with disease, he says.

His only chance at survival is a transplant, and Mr. Walker claims that his problem is that the Halifax surgeon he met with in early April, for a consult, told him that he was not a good candidate for a new liver because of his age.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Moral judgments: N.S. man ‘in disbelief’ after doctor says he is too old for liver transplant Back to video

“The doctor told me that since I turned 70 in January that I no longer qualified for a transplant,” Mr. Walker says. “He told me I had six months, maybe a year left.

“I am just in disbelief. I only met with the doctor for about 15 minutes.”

Mr. Walker would not divulge the doctor’s name, telling me that he was still hopeful a mistake had been made and that the death sentence he has been handed would be reversed and his name added to the list of patients waiting for new livers.