The number of organ recipients within Northern Health has grown over the past five years.
BC Transplant Operations Director, Ed Ferre told Vista Radio the health region recorded its best last year after only posting 10 in 2014.
“There were 30 organ recipients within Northern Health last year and that includes all of the organ groups including Kidneys.”
Provincially, a similar upward trend has been felt, going from 326 transplants in 2014 to 480 just last year.
In BC, the number of donors registered in the province’s Organ Donor Registry is over 1.5-million.
“We typically get about 400 to 500 registrations a month online. In 2018, during the weak of Organ Tissue Awareness week, when we first started the Green Shirt Day there are over 7,000 online registrations and last year we saw 4,500 registrations in one week.”
“Organ donation is part of the quality end of care life for individuals in British Columbia and that’s really resonating with the critical care staff in the province and as a result, this is something that is done routinely at end of care in areas like ICU (Intensive Care Unit).”
Today (Tuesday), is Green Shirt Day across Canada to help support organ donation awareness and registration in honour of former Humboldt Broncos player Logan Boulet who died in a tragic bus crash two years ago.
“Through organ donation, people can see something positive that comes out of such a tragedy and I think that really moves people and I think the generosity within Canadians to register is great because it’s the right thing to do,” added Ferre.
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