Organ donors honoured
of others. I'd like to express my profound gratitude to all these heroes and the courageous families that agreed to respect their loved ones' wishes despite moments of great difficulty and pain. I sincerely hope this recognition by CODA and all the people in attendance today gives them further comfort and eases their pain."
France Bédard of Sherbrooke was one of the 216 people who made the walk to the front of the church to accept a medal and the posthumous title of “Ambassador of health” on behalf of her husband, Sylvain Ducharme.
Ducharme, an employee at Waterville TD, left for work as usual on the afternoon of December 18, 2017, and never came home.
“As usual, I said I love you, be careful, go work,” Bédard recalled, explaining that she got the call from the hospital not an hour and a half later. “I asked two questions: is he alive? They said yes. I said did he make it to work, and they said probably not.”
Bédard shared that nearly a year later, she still doesn’t exactly know what happened, as the doctors ruled out an aneurysm and a heart attack, and the car only suffered a few scrapes in its lowspeed impact. Regardless of the cause, however, the result was that when she got to the CHUS, Ducharme was in a coma in the intensive care unit.
Family came to visit, and Bédard said that she even hosted the annual Christmas party, despite the circumstances, because she didn’t want to travel out of town. As time went on, however, her husband’s situation failed to improve.
“Every time they tried to wake him, his brain was more and more damaged,” she said. “We spent Christmas Eve at the CHUS; we were waiting for a Christmas miracle.”
Bédard said that she and her husband had talked extensively about end of life care and organ donation, and that he was adamant about not being left a vegetable. As the days dragged on, she said, she thought of her husband’s active lifestyle and his love for the world, and she knew her choice was clear.
“My daughter said, “miracles happen,” she recalled, “and I said sure, but if he wakes up, he won’t be happy.”
In the end, the Christmas miracle was destined for the two people who received Ducharme’s kidneys, as well as possibly as many as 47 people who were able to An honour guard made up of police officers from forces across the province escorted the family members of organ donors forward to receive medals on behalf of their departed loved ones receive tissue donations of one form or another.
“It’s what he wanted,” Bédard said. “He was always doing everything he could for others. I’m sure that wherever he is, he is happy. His mission on earth is accomplished.”
CODA was founded in 1983 and has overseen the transportation of countless organs over that time, helped by more than 2,000 police officers who volunteer their time for the cause. Over the past 25 years, more than 5,000 people have been honoured in the Sherbrooke ceremony, representing more than 15,000 transplant recipients. The names of each year’s honourees are carved on stone tablets which are put on display at Jacobnichol Park, at the corner of Portland and Jacques-cartier Streets in Sherbrooke.