Beau Walter was critically injured in a car accident in 2022. His mom Carrah Walter consented to donating his organs and tissues, dramatically changing the quality of life of at least 40 people.
More than 4,500 Canadians are waiting for life-saving organ transplants, nearly 300 of whom are in Alberta. Many more are waiting for life-changing tissue transplants.
“People with organ failure are, of course, in pretty desperate need of an organ,” Andreas Kramer, medical director of Give Life Alberta said. “Both for the sake of their long-term outcomes and survival, as well as for their quality of life.”
Alberta Health Services recently launched a new public awareness campaign called All the Ways, dedicated to encouraging Albertans to register online at the Alberta Organ and Tissue Donation Registry or at a motor vehicle registry office. You can indicate whether you’d like to be an organ donor, tissue donor or both. The registry replaces the need to sign the back of your Alberta Health card.
Kramer says it’s critical to discuss your wishes with family members, as consent is required from the next of kin for someone to donate organs and/or tissues. It also makes the decision to donate a bit easier for families during an intense time of grief. If you aren’t registered to be an organ or tissue donor but your next of kin believes this is something you would have wanted, you are still able to donate.
“It’s not at all uncommon for people to donate organs and tissues at the end of their life without having first registered on the basis that their loved ones tell us that the person would have, in fact, wanted to do that if they had been presented with that opportunity,” Kramer says.
A single organ donor can save up to eight lives. Registrants can choose what is and isn’t donated from a list including the kidneys, liver, lungs, heart, pancreas and the small intestine. But not every registered donor will be able to offer this precious gift; for this reason, maximizing the pool of potential donors is key to saving lives.
“People don’t always appreciate just how rare the opportunities for organ donation are, and in turn, how precious they are,” Kramer says. “I think a lot of people assume that their organs can be utilized at the end of their life (but) in fact, people do have to die in a certain way in order for their organs to be used.”
For a person’s organs to be considered for donation, they must already be on life support. This can occur when someone is injured in a severe car accident or experiences a spontaneous brain bleed or a fall.
Kramer says that many more people are likely to be considered for tissue donation at the end of their lives. One tissue donor can help heal up to 75 people, with life-changing gifts such as eyes, heart valves, bones, tendons and skin, among others.
Tissue donors can be as young as newborn or as old as 80. For organ donation, there is no age limit. All cases are evaluated on an individual basis. The quality of the organ is more important than its age, and an illness may not impact all organs in your body.
“It is very much an individual decision, and certainly whatever their views are will of course be respected,” he says. “Organ and tissue donation are very positive things. They have a massive impact on the lives of the recipients of those organs and tissues.”
Above all, Kramer adds that becoming an organ donor is a very personal decision. He emphasizes the impact that this decision can have on those who are in desperate need of a transplant to save their lives or significantly improve their quality of life.
“People have the right to not have that done at the end of their life and that’s okay, too. But there very much is a need, and it is really important,” he says. “It’s a gift.”
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