World Day for Organ Donation and Transplant

Speaking to loved ones about our intentions regarding organ donation

To mark World Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation, Transplant Québec is encouraging all Québec citizens to speak to their loved ones about their intentions concerning organ donation and registering those intentions in writing by joining one of the consent registries.

According to the organization, organ donors are few and far between. Throughout the world, slightly more than one in 100 hospital deaths meet the medical and legal criteria for organ donation. In Québec, this represents some 400 people per year if optimal conditions are met in each case. That’s why every consent matters.

“Saying yes to organ donation brings comfort to loved ones by lending a certain meaning to a person’s death. This altruistic gesture of solidarity has allowed more than 500 people to benefit from a transplant in the last year and given hope to hundreds of others waiting for a transplant,” said Jean Gravel, President of the Board of Directors of Transplant Québec. “Speaking to your loved ones about organ donation can make a real and valuable difference. On dying, a person can save up to eight lives through organ donation and give renewed health to 20 others through tissue donation. Families that know about their loved ones’ wishes have been shown to respect those wishes when that person passes away. Having already discussed this delicate issue makes it easier for the family to come to a decision at this very difficult time,” said Mr. Louis Beaulieu, Chief Executive Officer of Transplant Québec.

There are three ways to indicate your consent in Québec: By signing your Consent to Organ and Tissue Donation form issued by the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (attached with the health insurance card renewal notice). The form can also be ordered by calling 1-800-561-9749; by meeting a notary to register your consent (or refusal) in the Chambre des notaires du Québec’s organ donor registry (Registre des consentements au don d’organes et de tissus); or by signing the consent sticker and affixing it on the on the back of the health insurance card upon renewal, or by ordering the sticker on the Signez don website at www.signezdon.gouv.qc.ca

Transplant Québec wishes to remind people that signing up to one of the registries is the best way to confirm your consent, as once consent is registered, it remains sustainable over time.

As of September 30, 2018, close to four in 10 Quebecers had registered their consent to organ and tissue donation in one of the two registries.

The organization points out that any person, regardless of their age, can be a potential donor when they die. What matters is the quality of the organs. To date, Québec’s oldest organ donor, a liver donor, was 92 years old. Another 76-yearold donor saved five people. In Québec, any person may become an organ donor after death, regardless of their religion, race or sexual orientation. All potential donors are subject to an eligibility assessment by the care team and Transplant Québec.

In 2017 182 were organ donors in Quebec and 510 people benefited from transplants. In total, some 2,442 people received a transplant in the last five years (2013 to 2017), for an average of 488 people per year.

The number of people waiting for a transplant has decreased by close to 40% since 2011.

A special ceremony dedicated to this year’s organ donors will be taking place this morning starting at 9 a.m. at the Saint-michel Basilica-cathedral in Sherbrooke located at 130 Rue de la Cathédrale.