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50/50: Chris and Al did not match cards; so the pot of cash was carried over.
Presentation/Speaker: Joe Lizotte introduced Nancy MacDonald who besides being a member of the Alberta Donates LIFE Coalition, also happens to be his wife of 18 years.
Nancy's talk was going to be about Organ donation, which she thought was funny as Joe is the medical expert in the family as he is a dentist and she is the policy person.
Nancy & her family didn't think much about organ donation (much the same as many people) until it directly affected them through a family friend. This family friend developed a liver disease that required her to need a transplant. The comment that shocked Nancy and her friends and family came from her friend's doctor who said, "A liver transplant will save your life, but in all likelihood you will not survive the wait." There was a huge disconnect between the 90% of all people who said that they would donate an organ and getting that information to the doctors who currently have the medical procedures to save patients' lives with those organs. A bridge between those two things was required and Nancy's group was going to be the ones who built it.
With initial research, she was shocked to find that the number of organ donations had plummeted in province of Alberta over the last decade. We had dropped from being one of the leaders in the country to being the worst, dropping from 17 donors per million to less than 9 in 10 years. As of 2013, there are 819 people on the organ donation waiting list. Of that number, 55 have died or been removed from that list in the last year alone.
There is not just a human reason, but an economic reason for this to happen as well. A person requiring a kidney transplant still requires dialysis during the 10 year waiting list for that transplant. That costs the system $360,000 per year per patient which could be drastically reduced if they were to receive their transplant sooner.
Even though there is a huge need for organ donations, our local university, the University of Alberta is a world leader in organ donation medicine, and Nancy illustrated several examples of these exciting, cutting edge doctors and technologies that were developed right in our back yard. This was also frustrating to the group as these technologies were being developed, but the organs that were required may never actually reach them. The doctors were frustrated in knowing that they had the ability to save these patients, yet they were still dying.
In researching on how to best bridge this gap, it was found that Alberta had already completed a report on what needed to be done, based on information from other jurisdictions, but it had not yet been acted upon. In the past, you signed the back of your driver's license and then forgot about it. This also wasn't the easiest piece of ID to find in a situation where organ donation is an option, so this was one of the things that needed to be changed, with the development of an online registry and have an agency monitor and maintain that registry.
All that needed to happen to make this all come to fruition was to get our "ducks in a row" as it wasn't a matter of debate because everyone wanted to make this happen. So it started with Calgary MLA Len Webber introducing a private members bill and also enlisted the support of the health minister for the bill.
In November of 2013, the private members bill passed unanimously and became reality with the full weight of the government behind it. So now, by law, when you renew your driver's license, you will be asked whether you want to be an organ donor. And if you do, you will have a little heart printed on your new license to show that you are a donor. The act also allows the medical system to access this information, but it is important to note that it is always the family's decision in any transplant case, even if you have signed. But this will ensure that your family knows your wishes in this situation and allows the doctors to ask whether they want to honour your wishes.
Although it is just starting, the public awareness is very successful for 30,000 new people in the registry and Edmonton Transplant doctors performed a record amount of transplants this August. The hope is that we will see 50% of the Alberta population registered within the next few years.
Nancy was thanked by Fred Kraft.
The meeting was adjourned by President Ingrid.
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