Human organ donations lacking in the North

CHARLOTTE PETRIE

Tim Neily, Nunavut’s chief coroner, believes the territory could contribute a lot more to the country’s desperate search for tissue and organ donations.

At a recent chief coroners and medical examiners two-day conference held in Iqaluit last week, the subject of organ donation and transplantation planted a seed in Neily’s medical mind.

“It was an area of our meetings which I was listening to when I realized, hum… maybe Nunavut could be a part of [organ donation] programs,” Neily said.

It’s an issue that has lacked attention in Nunavut, possibly because it just wasn’t possible many years ago, Neily said. Perhaps because of transportation difficulties and a shortage of medical services, tissue and organ donations simply weren’t discussed, he suggested.

Neily admits even he hasn’t given the issue a lot of thought on a personal level.

He pulls out his Iqaluit Legion membership card from his wallet, and flips it over. On the back of the card is a consent form from the Human Tissue Gift Act offering three choices: to consent to the harvesting of any parts of one’s body; only certain parts of the body; or one’s entire body for the purpose of research or education.

The back of Neily’s card is not signed.

“To be perfectly honest with you, I’ve never thought of asking, ‘Is this deceased person a member of the Legion? And if they are, have they completed this on the back of their membership card?’

“I’m sure every Legion card in Canada has this on the back, but gosh, does anybody up here sign them?”

The annual conference is the one chance these coroners get to put their heads together for an exchange of ideas and information. It’s meetings like this that sometimes bring about change, Neily added.

And although Neily is fully aware that Iqaluit is not equipped to harvest organs, just getting people thinking about the issue may increase the number of harvested organs in the South.

Improvements in flight travel, medevac services and advancements in the removal and preservation of organs may make the difference.

Neily believes it may now be feasible to harvest organs from Nunavummiut who die down south, and thereby help save other lives.

Organizations like the Canadian Council for Donation and Transplantation measure their success in terms of the gap between organs donated each year and the number of people waiting for a transplant, Neily explained.

“The demand is huge. If they could get one more liver or one more heart, that’s a huge success for them. And, that’s one or two people who are very thankful for that.”

Although Neily isn’t sure what next step to take in terms of raising awareness and encouraging individuals to sign up as donors, it’s something he says he’s going to start thinking about.

“This is something which in the next little while I’m going to start talking to people about to find out what they think and where we should go from here.

“Right now, we are more or less starting at Ground Zero.”

Federal statistics show that Canada rates in the bottom half of all countries in the Western world where transplants are performed. An average of 3,500 Canadians a year are in need of a transplant, and of those, about 150 of them die while waiting.

According to Health Canada, 78 per cent of Canadians believe there is a need for organ donations and 71 per cent are willing to donate any organs needed for transplantation.

Women have been found to be more willing donors than men. Other groups identified as willing donors include the middle-aged (34-48 years old), people with at least a high school diploma and those earning a higher income.

The most common recipients, on the other hand, tend to be middle-aged Caucasian males, with 87 per cent of them being between the ages of 18 and 64 years.