Organ donations hit record high in Alberta last year

But province continues to lag behind national average, latest statistics show

Organ donation rates in Alberta climbed to a record high last year even as the province continued to lag behind much of the country, a new national study has found.

The statistics, released late Wednesday by Canadian Blood Services and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, show Alberta had a total of 70 deceased organ donors last year, translating to a rate of 16.1 deceased donors per million people.

That rate was the best on record for the province, and also represented a substantial year-overyear jump from the rate of 12.4 deceased donors per million that was logged in 2015.

The previous high was 14.5 deceased donors per million set in 2006, after which provincial rates began to tank — reaching a low of 8.7 per million in 2010.

Alberta has been gradually improving its donation performance in the years since reaching that bottom point, and is now starting to catch up to some other jurisdictions.

Nonetheless, the province remains behind the national average, which has also been climbing in recent years. The country as a whole achieved a rate of 20.9 deceased donors per million last year, up from 18.1 in 2015.

The best rate was posted by Ontario at 25.2, while the worst was Manitoba at 12.1.

The statistics show Alberta had a wait list of 718 patients needing transplant surgery at the end of 2016, a slight improvement from the 765 people the year before.

A total of 260 Canadians died last year while awaiting a transplant, 45 of whom were registered for treatment in Alberta — similar to the 41 deaths the province recorded in 2015.

About half of the province’s deaths were among patients needing a lung transplant.

Deceased donors are rare, since a viable donor usually has to die in hospital on a ventilator to keep the organs alive long enough to be transplanted.

However, a deceased donor can provide up to eight organs to save multiple lives, and can also donate tissue such as eyes, bones and skin.

Alberta has been making a variety

of efforts in recent years to bring up its deceased donor rate, including legislation approved in 2013 that created a new donation registry.

The province said 427,292 people have joined the registry since it was created, which still puts Alberta’s percentage of potential donors well below the percentages signed up by provinces like Ontario and British Columbia.