Register to become organ donor, recipient urges

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This article was published 21/09/2022 (1248 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Spending two minutes online could save a life like Chad Penner, who says he is forever grateful for the kidney and pancreas he received through organ donation.

Penner had been diabetic for 33 years and undergoing dialysis three times a week for four hours at a time to keep him alive. At the time, the wait list for a kidney in Manitoba was eight to 10 years, which made it likely he would die before he received new organs.

The problem, he said, was Manitoba’s relatively small and dispersed population.

Through an interprovincial agreement, he was sent to Toronto in 2016 as soon as a pancreas and kidney were available.

The wait in Ontario for a kidney is about a year.

“It was an absolutely smooth process from when I got the call, to the surgery, to being back in Manitoba,” he said. “They sent me there because there’s only 1.5 million people in the whole of Manitoba, but there’s three times that many just in the Greater Toronto Area, so they have more people to draw from for donations.”

Since then, he receives regular after care calls from Transplant Manitoba Gift of Life, the governing body of organ and tissue donation in the province. Penner, who is no longer diabetic, said he was told he can expect 30 to 40 years of good health with both the kidney and pancreas.

“I tell my students you don’t need your organs after you die and you could save up to eight lives,” said Penner, an emergency services officer and instructor at Manitoba Emergency Services College in Brandon. “I really support this program because my life was saved and being on dialysis wasn’t fun. It was debilitating and took away my social life and was extremely hard on my body.”

Today is World Gratitude Day, so Shared Health and Transplant Manitoba are encouraging Manitobans to register online. Their goal is 10,000 new organ or tissue donors by the end of 2022.

The organizations are showing their appreciation for all those who have registered and donated, while letting the public know more donors are needed to save lives, stated a news release from Shared Health.

When the online registration portal was launched, tens of thousands of Manitobans registered, the release stated. In 2019, the province moved the entire registration process online, eliminating paper donor cards. However, many still rely on a paper donor card, leaving their choice hidden in wallets and personal records.

Now is the time to have an online record, like the 62,000 Manitobans who currently do, said Dr. Owen Mooney, medical director for the Gift of Life program, in the release.

“Registering your intent to be a donor signals that organ and tissue donation is important to you and allows you to express your final wish to help others in need,” he said. “Dealing with acute loss and grief is difficult enough. Compound that by having to make an important decision that will forever have a profound and lasting effect on an individual and their loved ones, the decision weighs even greater.”

Online registration means donors’ decisions are securely recorded and readily available to the organization to share with family.

The pandemic made it harder to get people to register for organ donation, according to a spokesperson for Shared Health. The signupforlife.ca team used to do presentations in schools health fairs, walks and other activities where people gather to talk about donations. This day is a reminder of the benefits of having a record of their choice to donate their organs and tissue.

“I registered for donation, and it took me about two minutes online,” Penner said. “I’m not really sure if they can re-use any of my organs, but they will be there for whatever they want. Transplant, scientific study, put them on display. It won’t matter to me, because I’ll be gone and someone else can use them.”

To register, visit www.signupforlife.ca.

» kmckinley@brandonsun.com