PEMBROKE – As part of National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness week April 23 -29, Pembroke Regional Hospital is encouraging area residents to register their consent for donation.
“Our hospital and our staff are very proud supporters of organ and tissue donation,” said Francois Lemaire, Vice-President of Patient Services – Acute Care, and Chief Nursing Executive, as well as the local Executive Lead for Trillium Gift of Life.
In addition, the hospital has received ongoing recognition by the Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN) for consistently achieving a 100 per cent notification rate for potential organ and/or tissue donors.
“The Pembroke Regional Hospital recognizes the potential and therapeutic value to recipients and bereaved families who give consent to organ and tissue donation as well as its place as an integral part of quality end-of-life care,” Mr. Lemaire said.
Throughout the month of April, PRH has been sharing information about TGLN and encouraging staff and visitors to consider organ and tissue donation as part of their BeADonor Month activities.
According to TGLN, someone in Ontario dies every three days while waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant. Despite the fact there’s a cure, the knowledge and the tools to save them, there simply aren’t enough organ donors.
In Pembroke and Petawawa alone, there are currently seven people waiting for lifesaving transplants.
In those same communities, there are 9,980 registered donors out of a possible 31,040 individuals who are Ontario health card holders.
Research suggests that as many as 15 percent of Ontarians mistakenly believe they are registered when, in fact, they are not.
Mr. Lemaire said that some of these Ontarians may have signed a paper donor card years ago and are not aware that donor cards are now obsolete. Ontario’s BeADonor registry holds consent information in the health card database, so consent information can be shared with a potential donor’s family if necessary.
Checking registration status is easy. Look on the back of your photo health card for the word “donor” or check it online at beadonor.ca.
“When you think that one single organ donor can save up to eight lives and enhance another 75 more through tissue donation, it’s a gift worth giving,” said Mr. Lemaire.
TGLN is a not-for-profit agency of the Ontario government responsible for planning, promoting, coordinating and supporting organ and tissue donation for transplantation across Ontario and improving the system so that more lives can be saved.
