City again highlights Organ and Tissue Awareness Donation Week

For the third consecutive year Swift Current City Council has proclaimed an Organ and Tissue Awareness Donation Week.

At their April 19 meeting, council proclaimed April 25 to May 1 as Organ and Tissue Awareness Donation Week, wrapping up a month of organ and tissue awareness observations. The national Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week was observed on April 18 to 24, and the month of April has been recognized in Canada as National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Month since 1997.

Sammy Khalife, who handles Media and Public Relations for the Swift Current Area Ministerial Refugee Committee, shared his own experiences of being on the heart transplant wait list.

“If your heart is not working properly you have a machine and the machine is pumping the blood for you. You’re running off a lithium battery,” he noted during his April 19 presentation.

“It’s a mechanical thing, it can break down any time. People usually go through heart failure even though they don’t have the actual heart. It’s hard to keep up with their kidneys, so they go through kidney failures and other organs like the liver.

Ironically, in the midst of Swift Current’s Organ and Tissue Awareness Donation Week, Khalife experienced a problem with his Ventricular assist device (VAD) and made an emergent trip to the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute in Edmonton.

During his presentation to City Council, Khalife noted that people with VADS have a high risk of infection, and while recovering from an infection they are not eligible to receive a new heart because of complications that could develop during the transplant surgery.

“This is my second year on the transplant list, but I have been active for only six months, just because every time you get an infection they don’t want to cut you off but they put you to ‘status zero’. You’re not kicked out or lose your turn, but you’re not active. That’s what ’status zero’ means.”

“Believe it or not, I’m doing better than people that I know,” Khalife said despite making numerous trips to the hospital and having lived through a stroke.

Back on September 3 the provincial government unveiled the online Organ and Tissue Donor Registry, which can be utilized by any Saskatchewan resident aged 16 or older. The website www. givelifesask.ca allows people to register their decision regarding their organ and tissue donation wishes.

However, Khalife pointed out that family members can opt out of the registry is they are empowered to make medical decisions if you are unable to do so.

“I’m not sure what makes anyone not grant their loved one’s last wish, but this is the law and we need to work on that,” he said.

On Khalife’s Help A Heart Fundraiser Facebook Page, he has a series of videos, including one where he is advocating for transitioning the organ and tissue awareness advocating efforts from the Refugee Committee to a committee just focussed on organ and tissue awareness. This new committee would also organize and promote future organ and tissue donation awareness week events.

“I want the community in Swift Current and area to be involved in spreading awareness,” he said in the video.

He asked anyone with the time to contribute to this effort to reach out to him via Facebook.