2018 set a new record for the number of transplants in B.C.
502 British Columbians received a transplant last year according to BC Transplant. There were 28 heart transplants, 50 lung transplants, 77 liver transplants, and 339 kidney transplants.
“I think we have every reason to feel positive that all of the pieces we put into place to support living and deceased donation continue to go forward so I’m optimistic that we will see a year in 2019 where we do more living donors and hopefully more preemptively living donor transplants,” said Dr. David Landsberg.
There are currently more than 1.35 million British Columbians who have registered to be an organ donor.
“People who are eligible for an organ donation are those that have had a very severe injury to their brain usually; sometimes other parts of their body that don’t allow them to recover,” said Dr. Sean Keenan.
“At that time family who is then representing the wishes of the person involved have understandably a lot of stress around the situation and being approached for organ donation can add to this especially if they are not aware of the wishes of the person involved. So for those who really wish to be organ donors if their family is aware of that wish if they should ever tragically be in a situation to donate, it makes it so much easier for the family to proceed. It also makes it much more likely that the wishes will be acted on then if the family doesn’t know.”
As of January 1, 2019, 669 people are still waiting for an organ transplant in BC.