History-maker passes on

Back in 1994, Mavis “Connie” McArdle was on the brink of death. She needed a life-saving liver transplant fast, after an autoimmune disease made hers stop working. The only problem? There was no liver available - no human one, that is.

She would’ve never dreamed that a novel procedure featuring a temporary organ donation from a pig would save her life and give her 30 more years with her friends and family. McArdle went down in history that day, and as her loved ones come together to reflect after her passing earlier this month, it’s just one memory that stands out from her vibrant 86 years of life.

“Connie could get along with just about everybody,” said Terry Diabo, McArdle’s cousin.

“She was up for anything,” said Arlie Goodleaf, also McArdle’s cousin. “She was game to try things, and she would do it.”

The two still remember the day that McArdle’s medical team explained what they wanted to do to save her life. They recall her doctor, Dr. Jean Tchervenkov, bringing a magazine clipping into her room, outlining a similar procedure that had been done in the United States. A pig’s liver would be temporarily connected to her veins, providing life-saving blood filtration - without the pig’s liver, McArdle would die waiting for the human donation.

Though the idea of using a pig liver seemed outlandish - “We never in a million years thought anything like that was even possible,” Diabo said - the family knew they had no choice but to take the risk to save their cousin, and soon the pig’s liver was connected to McArdle’s veins so that it could clean her blood.

The family watched as the liver, kept in a large surgical bowl on the outside of her body, did the work to save her life for several hours until a human liver became available.

Tchervenkov still remembers the moment that he and his team decided to proceed with the operation, knowing it was the first of its kind in Canada.

“The stakes were pretty high, because if it didn’t work, you’d be looked at like, ‘What were you thinking?’” he said.

After about an hour of being hooked up to the pig liver, McArdle opened her eyes and started talking to the people around her. Though it’s been decades, Tchervenkov still remembers the relief he felt when he saw that happen.

“That basically told us her brain was salvageable. We went ahead and said, okay, this will work. We’re going to get her off the table and she might even survive,” he said.

The transplant kickstarted the careers of many medical personnel involved and was considered a major medical milestone for what’s now known as the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).

“She made us famous for a bit, and she’s paid us back in living, and contributing to the community, contributing to life, and helping our other patients to believe in themselves and to want to live,” Tchervenkov said.

Tchervenkov said he loved celebrating with his patient on anniversaries, commemorating decades of her healthy liver.

“She’ll be remembered as an awesome personality. She had a good liver, but an even better heart,” he said.

McArdle’s procedure wasn’t the only thing that defined her life. She loved powwow dancing, and her family, and she was also a lover of travel, spending years globetrotting during her time as a ticket agent with Air Canada. She flew to places like Japan, Holland, Hawaii, and Scotland, always returning to regale her family with tales of the culture in other countries.

She was also one of the earliest employees at our very own Eastern Door newspaper, where she wore various hats, including working as production assistant. She retired in February 2014 after a whirlwind 22 years.

“She was a tremendous person, we all loved her. She’s a part of the newspaper,” said The Eastern Door’s former editor/publisher Kenneth Deer. He recalls the nickname that McArdle was jokingly called after she survived not just her liver transplant but also hip and knee replacements – and later, breast cancer.

“We all called her the ‘Bionic Woman,’ because no matter what happened she came back, she just survived all kinds of things,” Deer. “Connie was just part of the furniture. She was always there, she was always dependable.”

McArdle took pride in her work, said The Eastern Door’s advertising consultant Tara Wall.

“She was no-nonsense. She didn’t take any gruff from anybody, but there were little moments where she would break away from that, and she was frickin’ funny,” she said. “She’d volunteer all over, always at the powwow, always at the blood donor clinic. She was always ready to lend a hand.”

The Eastern Door’s layout and ad designer Dana Marquis called McArdle “the best co-worker you could ever ask for in administration.”

“If you wanted a job done, you could ask anyone, but if you wanted a job done right, Connie was the one to ask,” Marquis said. “She was always happy, determined, and her attention to detail was remarkable. I especially got a kick out of her random outbursts of sneaking in a swear word or two here and there, which made her a force to be reckoned with.”

For Charleen Schurman, who was there at the very beginning of The Eastern Door, McArdle was not just a coworker, but a friend. Schurman started out as a receptionist and administrative assistant, working in tandem with McArdle.

“A bomb could go off and she’d have remained calm. She’s the kind of person you’d want to have there at a newspaper, she kept everyone reassured that everything was going to be okay,” she said, recalling hectic deadline days spent at the office. “Her stories were always interesting, and she never ran out of them.”

Though McArdle never had children of her own, she was always doting over Schurman’s children and the little ones in her family.

“She particularly loved kids,” Goodleaf said. “My grandchildren were like her grandchildren too.”

“She just wanted to be with her family. It didn’t matter what age you were,” Diabo said.

McArdle was laid to rest yesterday, and The Eastern Door staff gathered to pay their respects to a very special long-time employee on what was the newspaper’s deadline day – fitting for a woman known for staying calm under pressure.

“Connie was the sweetest person I ever knew, and she was always up for advice with a little bit of spice,” said The Eastern Door’s editor/publisher Steve Bonspiel. “She definitely had that strong Mohawk spirit about her, and she was such a pleasure to talk to. I feel lucky that she was a part of our team for as long as she was.”

McArdle will be missed by The Eastern Door’s employees past and present and will forever be a part of what makes the newspaper what it is today.

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