Family encourages organ donors after brother’s tragic death
Jim Aune and his family turned a tragic death into hope for six strangers and he wants people to know they can do the same thing if they sign an organ donor card.
Aune’s brother, T.J. Highfield, shot himself in the head with a .22 rifle last month on the Saskatchewan side of Flin Flon. Highfield was airlifted to Saskatoon, where doctors told Aune that his brother would not recover from brain injuries. After a quick conversation, the family decided to donate High- field’s organs.
“They basically told us his brain was not compatible with life. There was no chance of survival,” said Aune in an interview this week. “Being able to see his organs donated and with the tough life he lived and the sad way he ended his life, at least there is a happy moment after all of this. There are six people who might have a more fulfilling, longer life.”
On Jan. 23, medical staff flew in from outside the province to retrieve organs from Highfield, who was on life-support until he died that day. Highfield’s kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas and lungs were removed and used in transplant surgeries on anonymous recipients.
Aune decided to speak about his experience to encourage others to explore organ donation with their families.
“Families need to discuss this,” said Aune, a mining consultant who lives in Saskatoon. “I’m hoping this story provokes another family to follow up this process to find that something good can happen in a bad situation.”
Highfield, who died at 34, was a father of one boy who loved to hunt and fish.
The man had a fierce independent streak, but also was prone to having to much fun, Aune said.
Heavy drinking made worse by a head injury suffered in a motorcycle accident made it difficult for Highfield to keep a job. Aune said the family often lent Highfield money, but had recently made a decision to stop enabling him. That decision and the suicide caused some guilt in the family, but Aune said donating his organs has helped the family see a positive side in the ordeal.
“T.J. chose a different path,” Aune said. “I think it was the wrong path. I’m not mad at him, but I’m not happy with it.”
Highfield never discussed organ donation with his family, but Aune believes he would have signed off on the idea had been alive.
“I think if he was sitting here, he’d be happy that he was able to help others after his troubled life,” Aune said.
More than 600 organ donation recipients, including 466 people who received kidneys, are living in Saskatchewan, according to the Saskatoon Health Region. In 2011, 30 people from Saskatchewan received kidney transplants, two received new hearts and two received new lungs. Thirty-one people received cornea transplants and 37 received tissue transplants.
Last year, 12 people who died in Saskatchewan had their organs removed for donation.
While health officials would like to see more people attach the red organ donor sticker to their health card, the sticker doesn’t mean organs are guaranteed to be donated. Families have to sign off on the wishes, said Diane Shendruk, the health region’s director of renal services and the Saskatchewan Transplant Program.
“The most important thing is to talk with your family,” Shendruk said. “The sticker is there, but the family needs to know the person’s wishes.”
The provincial Health Ministry last April launched an organ donor awareness campaign that sought donation pledges on social media. Shendruk said the “I am a Donor” campaign, in which several Saskatchewan celebrities support organ donation, created buzz and earned pledges from more than 700 people.
“We would like to see improved donor numbers in Saskatchewan,” Shendruk said.
Only kidney and cornea transplants are done in Saskatchewan. For other organ transplants, patients are moved out of province. The low volume of transplants needed in Saskatchewan — beyond kidneys — means specialists are found in larger centres, Shendruk said.
Aune would like to see an organ donor registry created in Saskatchewan based on the B.C. transplant registry, which is a legal record of a person’s decision to donate organs.
“Everybody talks about where they want to be buried, but not everybody talks about organ donation,” he said. “Hopefully, a few more people will consider what we did.”
The family will be sent a bit of information about who received Highland’s organs, but they won’t learn the recipient’s names. The family hopes to one day meet somebody who benefited from the organ donation.
“My dad’s wish is to find out who got the organs, but I don’t know if that will happen,” Aune said.