Almost 100,000 registered to donate organs after bus crash

OTTAWA — Nearly 100,000 Canadians signed up to become organ donors after learning a victim of last month’s Humboldt Broncos bus crash had signed a donor card weeks before the accident — and wound up saving six lives.

According to Canadian Blood Services, there were 99,742 registrations in April alone, and that number only includes provinces that have online registration: Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.

The other provinces reported receiving a lot of inquiries about how to register.

Jenny Ryan, a spokesperson for Canadian Blood Services, called it an “extraordinary show of support for organ and tissue donation,” and said the tragedy inspired people to be more aware.

She noted that the spike in organ donation registrations also occurred during a week in April that’s dedicated to national organ and tissue donation awareness.

Logan Boulet signed a donor card after his 21st birthday, several weeks before the bus carrying him and the rest of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team collided with a tractor-trailer in rural Saskatchewan. He was among the 16 people killed in the crash; another 13 were injured.

In Ontario, there are typically 42 online organ donation registrations a day, but since the crash that number has jumped to almost 800 a day, according to Ronnie Gavsie, president of Ontario’s organ and tissue donation agency, Trillium Gift of Life Network.

“We can only measure online, but it just jolted people out of their complacency and they registered consent and that will translate into thousands of lives saved, not today, but eventually.”