Politicians urged to show some heart
Alberta organ donation program gets a boost at the Legislature
While politicians and their staffers were encouraged to sign up to be organ donors at the Alberta legislature Wednesday, Nicole Goehring, MLA for Edmonton-Castle Downs, needed no encouragement.
Goehring said she learned firsthand how important organ donation is when she watched her friend’s eight-year-old son get a heart transplant.
“It gave them their son,” said Goehring.
Diagnosed with end-stage congestive heart failure in November 2012, Goehring said the family watched as their vibrant, sweetnatured son withered while waiting for a heart transplant.
“The year he was in the hospital he had to spend Christmas at the Stollery (Children’s Hospital) and he said that was kind of sad, but he got the best late Christmas present ever. He got a heart,” Goehring said.
He was lucky enough to get a transplant on Dec. 29, 2012, and aside from an annual check up and being on an anti-rejection medication regimen, he is a regular happy, healthy boy, but not everyone is so lucky.
“In Alberta, there are over 700 people waiting for an organ transplant, and many more are waiting for a tissue transplant. Across Canada, over 4,000 people are waiting,” said Sherri Kashuba, managing director of the Alberta Organ and Tissue Donation Agency with Alberta Health.
The registration drive at the legislature Wednesday was part of National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week, raising awareness for Alberta’s organ donor registry and how important it is for Albertans to sign up.
While there are more than 233,000 Albertans already on the donor list, Kashuba said just over seven per cent of eligible Albertans have agreed to donate their organs in the event of their death, compared to approximately 20 per cent in British Columbia and 30 per cent in Ontario.
Kashuba said part of the issue is awareness, as people often don’t think about organ donation until they themselves or someone they know needs a transplant.
“People are around six times more likely to need a transplant than to actually be a donor,” said Kashuba.
Not every person who signs up to donate their organs will, as a healthy donor needs to die in hospital on a ventilator to keep the tissue alive long enough to be transplanted, which in itself in a complex and time-sensitive process.
Last year in Alberta, there were only 13 organ transplants from deceased donors per one million people in the province.
Greg Clark, leader of the Alberta Party and MLA for Calgary-Elbow, said he has been registered to donate organs since he was about 18 years old.
“It really is the ultimate gift. Should something tragic happen to me, my organs can be used to save someone else. I think that’s the ultimate act of generosity,” Clark said.
“Organ donation truly is a gift that keeps on going, and such a simple step can make it happen,” said Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee, who signed up Wednesday.
For more information or to add your name to Alberta’s organ donor registry, go to www.ultimategiftalberta.ca