Helwer hopes to keep up organ donation momentum

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/02/2018 (2761 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are people behind every one of the record-setting 77 kidney transplants that were performed in Manitoba last year.

Brandon West Progressive Conservative MLA Reg Helwer knows this all too well, with his daughter, Jessica Stobbe, receiving a kidney from her brother (and Helwer’s son) Andrew.

Andrew was one of last year’s 33 live donors, with the balance made up of those who pledged their kidneys upon their death.

Helwer attended Monday’s celebratory event at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre, where Transplant Manitoba announced last year’s record-setting year for kidney transplants, a 35 per cent boost from the previous record year of 57 recorded in 2016.

Helwer credits the successful year to Transplant Manitoba’s “dedicated team that has developed a good connection with potential donors in a very difficult time of family in terms of receiving donors.”

He added that prospective donors’ loved ones “feel that they thanked them or the opportunity, and they didn’t feel there was any pressure or they weren’t made to feel bad because they didn’t donate.”

The “life-changing” procedure is one that Helwer said he hopes to see highlighted at more events such as Monday’s celebration, which he said help boost public education and therefore donor numbers.

Helwer is chair of the provincial government’s non-partisan task force on organ and tissue donation, which is meeting in the legislature with several presenters on Wednesday to help hash out a plan to improve organ donation rates in Manitoba.

He said that he’d hoped to host a second meeting in Brandon on Friday, but wasn’t able to secure enough interest.

Although Helwer said that he can’t say what their direction to the government will be until such time as their final report has been drafted, he added that education has been a big component in other jurisdictions.

“Organ donation is truly a gift,” Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said during yesterday’s event.

“It is a gift from the person providing that life-giving donation and it is the most transformative thing for the person receiving it.”

Goertzen said statistics show that the partnership between the Manitoba Renal Program and Transplant Manitoba “is strong and continues to improve.

“The teams are optimizing their practices and processes and are providing Manitobans with top-notch kidney care and access to transportation services.”

Goertzen said a provincial all-party standing committee on organ donation, chaired by Tory MLA Reg Helwer (Brandon West) will begin hearing from people on Wednesday to see how best to increase the number of organ donations.

Dr. David Rush, medical director of the Health Sciences Centre’s adult kidney transplant program, said the province’s kidney transplants per million population is one of the highest in the world. A report, by the International Registry in Organ Donation and Transplantation, puts Manitoba in fourth place in 2016, behind only Spain, the United States and the Netherlands.

Transplant Manitoba estimates that kidney transplants in the last two years have saved the health-care system more than $1 million worth of dialysis costs.

During yesterday’s event, kidney recipient Garth Bartel said that before the operation, he was really feeling the effects of his deteriorating kidney.

“I always compared it to a bad hangover that didn’t go away,” he said.

“You just slowly lose your appetite and motivation.”

Bartel said that changed after the operation, for which his wife, Agnes, was a kidney donor.

“It was instant,” he said. “I felt great.”

Agnes said she felt back to normal eight weeks after surgery, while Bartel said he was back at work three months post-surgery.

Agnes said the couple can continue to enjoy their daughter and three grandchildren, as well as go on trips, without having to have her husband connected to a dialysis machine for hours.

“I tell people, do not be afraid to consider donating a kidney,” she said.

“It is possible to live a normal life with one kidney, but it is also possible for someone to get a kidney and live a normal life as well.”

To register as a donor, go to signupforlife.ca.

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB