‘I feel for families’
Delilah Saunders questions liver transplant policy in hospital bed news conference
An Inuk woman with acute liver failure spoke of her sadness that Canadians are dying due to rules that prevent some from receiving organ transplants, as she gave an emotional news conference Tuesday from her hospital bed.
The visibly exhausted Delilah Saunders, 26, expressed concerns that while she appears to be recovering, others with alcohol-related liver disease often aren’t allowed to go on a waiting list for transplants that will keep them alive.
“I’m really feeling for the families who have lost loved ones due to these policies, due to small technicalities and things that could have saved so many lives,” she said at the University Health Network hospital in Toronto, where she was transferred earlier this week from Ottawa.
Saunders’ struggle has drawn support from Amnesty International and Aboriginal groups, as friends and family of the advocate
for Indigenous women learned of a rule in Ontario that requires people with alcoholrelated liver disease to have abstained from drinking for six months before being eligible for a transplant.
Saunders’ family has said she
was told she wouldn’t be eligible due to the Ontario rule, and they have argued it’s a policy that discriminates against Indigenous citizens, the poor and other marginalized groups, while being based on shaky science.
Transplant doctors have cited evidence that some alcoholics return to drinking after a transplant of the organ, and the transplant may not succeed as a result. They say this poses ethical issues for clinics who have other recipients in need of the donated organ.
As the issue unfolded and vigils were held, offers from Canadians to provide the young woman from Labrador with part of their liver through the living donor program flowed in, and the young woman said it had been “beautiful and encouraging.”
With relatives nearby, Saunders spoke of living through auditory illusions, struggling to sleep and a roller-coaster ride of emotions as she struggled to regain her health.
Now, she is urging all Canadians to get out and register to donate organs, so that the shortage of livers won’t drive policy-making.
Data from 2015, which are the most recent available, show that 127 people in Ontario died on a waiting list for an organ. Meanwhile, so far this year, 377 people whose organs could have been used didn’t register and their families declined to consent.
Her call for more organ donations was echoed by Ronnie Gavsie, the chief executive of the Trillium Gift of Life Network, Ontario’s organ donation agency.
“The way we’re going to win here is if all of us, everyone of us who are 16 years of age or older, register consent at beadonor.ca. It takes less than two minutes,” Gavsie said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Monday.
Gavsie also said the donor agency wants to accelerate a pilot project that waives a sixmonth sobriety requirement for drinkers seeking liver transplants.
“Our goal is to start it as early as possible, which means accelerate the planning of the pilot and the resources required to support it,” she said.
However, the executive said the pilot program still needs to hire people at the transplant centres and for the program.