#Trillium Gift of Life Network

[flock-of-cassowaries]

I used to have piercings, but then I got multiple sclerosis and it wasn’t just worth taking them out every time I got an MRI.

I think the whole immune-system-attacking-my-spine situation has definitely reduced my body’s resale value, though. The officially-sanctioned vampires over at Canadian Blood Services don’t even want my vital fluids.

(I mean, like, officially; before they just didn’t want me because of the time I got nauseous and abruptly and violently vomited into a trashcan on the incredibly-named Bloodmobile.)

[Do other countries have Bloodmobiles? They’re like bookmobiles, but funnier.]

The Trillium Gift of Life Network does still want my organs if I fall out a window, though; so l guess you could still, like, donate me for a tax receipt.

[andronetalks]

Ontario woman asked to donate husband’s organs after he was denied transplant for being unvaccinated

Life Site By Clare Marie Merkowsky July 31, 2023 SUDBURY, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Canadian health officials asked an Ontario woman to donate organs of her husband who died after being denied an organ transplant because he did not receive the COVID-19 shots. In May, Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN), the Ontario organ donation agency, called Meghan Harper to harvest her husband Garnet’s organs…

[onpoli]

It was about a year ago that doctors at St. Michael’s Hospital told 29-year-old Patrick Terry he’d better stop drinking. He didn’t, and told his mom he doesn’t even remember that happened.

But, as he now lies in Toronto General Hospital with days or months to live, that moment might be what’s keeping Terry from receiving a new liver that could save his life, despite Ontario eliminating a six-month sobriety requirement under the province’s policies on alcohol use and transplants.

Terry’s case sheds light on the plight of patients with alcohol-associated liver disease who are still hitting roadblocks to get a spot on the liver transplant list.

The sobriety requirement was eliminated in Ontario in 2018 for a three-year testing period, meaning anyone with alcohol-associated liver disease can be assessed as a liver transplant candidate regardless of when they had their last drink. But guidelines from the Trillium Gift of Life Network, the province’s organ and tissue donation agency, say patients can be ruled out if there’s evidence they won’t follow the advice of health professionals, along with a host of other criteria they must meet.

Terry’s mother, Margaret Terry, said she was told by doctors that the fact he had been warned to stop drinking and at one point had been referred to a rehab program means he doesn’t qualify.

She said she wants the transplant guidelines to make room for an exception, saying because he’s so young he deserves a chance to change his life.

“Patrick’s not getting a second chance,” his mother said. “The Ministry (of Health’s) rules are prejudicial against alcoholics and all mental health. The kind of people who are drinking are drinking for a reason, because they’re depressed or it’s in their genes.”

[resaw6]

Organ donation by Humboldt Broncos player inspires others

Organ donation by Humboldt Broncos player inspires others

Please read this article about the decision Humboldt Broncos hockey player, Logan Boulet, made to become an organ donor. In particular, note that there are 4500 people across Canada in need of an organ transplant, among them a two-year-old boy named Mason.

Organ donation by Humboldt Broncos player inspires othersDonation agencies across Canada say registration jumped after bus crash that claimed…

[fanzonesports]

Windsor Hospitals Win Nod From Government Outfit

Windsor Hospitals Win Nod From Government Outfit @WRHospital @DavidMusyj #WRH

(WINDSOR, ON) – Ontario’s Trillium Gift of Life Network has announced the names of hospitals it says have done an outstanding job this year on “Maximizing the Gift of Life.” Windsor Regional Hospital, which has two acute care campuses in the city, will receive one of 36 awards being presented this year to 29 hospitals and partners for outstanding work in organ and tissue donation over the fiscal…

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government could risk its reputation and credibility by rushing to implement a health-care overhaul, civil servants warned in planning documents obtained by CTV News Toronto.

The internal presentation, emblazoned with the word "confidential" in capital letters, details some of the key work the government needs to complete by the end of February in order to successfully launch a new “super agency.” The plan would merge Cancer Care Ontario, E-Health, Trillium Gift of Life and Local Health Integration Networks.

The items to be completed include appointing a CEO, board members and signing cabinet orders by February 20, as well as acquiring office space, staff, designated phone lines and a website.

Continue Reading.

[college-girl199328]

COVID-19 vaccination appears to be becoming a standard practise among Canadian organ transplant specialists. However, why?

It's all about making sure that the patients who receive a scarce and precious organ get the best outcome possible. "We strongly support transplant program requirements for candidates to receive COVID-19 vaccine before transplantation," the Canadian Society of Transplantation stated in updated guidance provided to the provincial organ donation organizations and regional transplant programs.

The guidance, published on Jan. 9 after months of discussion among Canadian transplant organizations, called for transparency in any provincial or regional programs that choose to implement the rule. Recently, the Ajmera Transplant Centre of University Health Network (UHN) has done so as well.

The Ajmera Transplant Centre in Toronto performs more than 500 organ transplants every year. A COVID-19 vaccine must also be received at least twice. "After transplant surgery, patients are severely immunocompromised because of the treatments they undergo for the rest of their lives to prevent rejection of their new organs. Therefore, transplant recipients are at a much higher risk of complications and of dying if they get COVID-19," said Ana Fernandes, spokesperson for the UHN.

"Immunization reduces these risks for the individual transplant recipient. It is ethically wrong if an immunosuppressed patient is not first vaccinated." Fernandes said exemptions may be granted: if the patient has a medical reason for not getting vaccinated, or "in cases of urgent need for a transplant."

"The number of organs available for transplant is limited and all transplant programs follow strict criteria to ensure that they are offered to patients in the greatest need, but also with the greatest chance of a positive outcome," Fernandes said. "If measures to ensure the patient’s safety are not taken, alternative treatments (such as dialysis for kidney failure) are often associated with better patient outcomes."

In an announcement, Ontario's Trillium Gift of Life Network noted that it "strongly recommends" transplant recipients be vaccinated before undergoing surgery, as well as fully informed of the risks associated with not doing so. According to a spokesperson for the network, "the clinical decision to proceed with transplanting individuals who have not been vaccinated rests with the transplant programs, on a case by case basis, depending on the severity of the illness, the level of immunosuppression, the community virus activity, and the individual case details."

"The priority for patients on the wait list is based on medical urgency (i.e. the sickest person is given priority) as well as factors such as blood type and size matching when an organ becomes available." The topic of vaccine requirements for organ transplant patients has made headlines over recent months but most recently this week, after the family of a Boston man said he was denied a heart transplant because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19.

As recently as October 2021, a woman from Colorado was also in the news after she refused to get vaccinated for organ transplant. The Associated Press quoted Dr. Howard Eisen as saying, "a donor's heart is a valuable and scarce gift that must be treated well."

A professional organization for healthcare workers specializing in transplants, the Canadian Society of Transplantation's goal is to preserve patient survival and provide positive outcomes after transplantation. The organization is made up of more than 500 physicians, surgeons, scientists, and other health professionals from across the country.

According to the organization, it based its recommendations regarding vaccine requirements for transplant recipients on advice from its own members and from the Canadian Blood Services’ advisory committees, Health Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada. As part of that advice, the organization included the recommendations from the World Health Organization, provincial agencies and international partners, including the United Kingdom and Spain, both of which have a strong organ transplant system.

According to the organization, any policy requiring the COVID-19 vaccine should be transparent and announced far enough in advance for transplant candidates and healthcare workers to comply with it. "Healthcare professionals are given time to get their vaccines before policies are implemented for candidates. The healthcare system must maximize efforts to educate and reassure vaccine-hesitant candidates. To address any concerns, misperceptions, or uncertainties candidates may have, transplant programs should provide evidence-based patient education.

Similarly, the American Society on Transplantation recommends regular reevaluation of vaccine policy.

There are already many recommendations for organ transplant patients, from guidance on getting hepatitis B or pneumococcal vaccines, to a requirement that they be sober for at least six months sober before receiving a liver transplant. This is all attributed to reducing the risk of infection following transplants when the immune system is suppressed and highly vulnerable, as well as ensuring the recipient of the organ will have a successful outcome.

As a result of successive waves of the virus the COVID-19 pandemic has increased wait times for organ donations, resulting in a backlog of many procedures in many provinces. In 2020 there were 2,594 transplants in Canada--a decrease of 14 percent from 2019, attributed to the pandemic, says CIHI.

[hcsmca]

HCSM News ~ Many transplant patients adhering to 6-month sobriety rule improve to point operation not needed: doctor

The six-month sobriety rule is just one of many conditions that patients needing liver transplants must meet to be considered for a transplant, according to guidelines set by Trillium Gift of Life Network, the agency that co-ordinates organ donations in Ontario.

Read more from CBC http://ift.tt/2kVawZL

[atlanticcanada]

Inuk woman released from hospital after struggle with liver failure

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- An Inuk activist from Labrador whose struggle with acute liver failure sparked a national discussion about an Ontario transplant policy is being released from hospital in what her friends and family are calling a "Christmas miracle."

Delilah Saunders, 26, has been discharged from Toronto General Hospital's transplant unit and is returning to Newfoundland to live with family for the next few months while she recovers.

Saunders said she has made a "miraculous" turnaround since being diagnosed with acute liver failure about two weeks ago, and doctors told her it doesn't look like she'll need a transplant in the immediate future.

"People were coming in, they were expecting to just be saying goodbye to me. Even the nurses, the doctors, they didn't have much hope for my recovery," she said in a phone interview while en route to St. John's on Sunday. "(Doctors) were really surprised and pleased at how my body fought back."

Saunders, who is a prominent activist for Aboriginal women, said she was "overwhelmed" by the outpouring of support for her case, which put a spotlight on an Ontario transplant program's policy requiring patients with alcohol-related liver disease to be sober for six months before being eligible for a transplant.

Saunders said she was initially told she was ineligible because of the Ontario rule, which her family criticized as discriminatory towards Indigenous citizens, the poor and other marginalized groups.

Her struggle set into motion a campaign to have the policy overturned that drew support from Amnesty International and Aboriginal groups, and inspired vigils across the country. As the issue gained traction, Saunders said she had to turn down offers from friends, strangers and even a few former flames who volunteered to be her organ donor.

While her condition has improved, Saunders said she plans to keep advocating on behalf of other patients who are denied potentially life-saving treatment because of the alcohol-use policy.

"Families have been reaching out to me to express not only their support, but their experiences," she said. "There are families who have lost loved ones due to these policies. There are people that didn't know they could challenge these policies."

Transplant doctors have cited evidence that some alcoholics return to drinking after a transplant of the organ, and the transplant may not succeed as a result.

Saunders said the Trillium Gift of Life Network, the organization that oversees organ donations in Ontario, must change the six-month abstinence rule because it is too "restrictive" and does not fully account for individual circumstances.

Having struggled with alcohol abuse since the murder of her sister Loretta in 2014, Saunders said she was on the path to sobriety in the months leading up to her liver failure.

She said she relapsed after giving emotionally charged testimony before the National Inquiry into Murder and Missing Women and Girls at Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton in October, but had it not been for that "brief slip," she would have been weeks away from meeting the six month sobriety requirement.

She believes her condition was primarily triggered by a buildup of Tylenol that she was taking for jaw pain.

The pain medication has been linked to liver injury and lawyer Caryma Sa'd, who is representing Saunders, said her client is looking for affordable dental-care options so she can get the surgery she needs to address the "underlying problem."

"The silver lining to this ordeal has been the outpouring of public support, which has drawn attention to inequities in Canadian healthcare policy," Sa'd said in an email on Sunday. "There are important discussions to be had about eligibility for organ transplants and gaps in the provision of health services for (Indigenous Peoples)."

Sa'd called her client's recovery a "Christmas miracle," and Saunders said her family is inclined to agree.

As doctors continue to monitor her condition, Saunders said her first-hand experience navigating the health system will fuel her campaign to increase access to medical care for Indigenous Peoples and others.

"What I'll really be taking away is that extra assurance that I have to speak out. I have that responsibility," she said.

"I'm just grateful to be alive. I'm so grateful that I'm still here and that I can still fight, and it's really given me an extra boost of fire, of drive, to be able to fight ... for people's rights."

from CTV News - Atlantic http://ift.tt/2lcnuTe

[vsplusonline]

'The gift anyone can give': Ontario sets new record for organ donations and transplants

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/the-gift-anyone-can-give-ontario-sets-new-record-for-organ-donations-and-transplants/

'The gift anyone can give': Ontario sets new record for organ donations and transplants

TORONTO — A record number of patients received organ transplants in Ontario last year, thanks to improvements in technology and medicines used in the life-saving procedures.

The province had 1,386 organ transplants and 684 deceased and living organ donors in 2019, according to the Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN). This provincial agency works with 69 hospitals across Ontario to process organ donations and tissue transplants.

The latest numbers show a 13 per cent increase in organ transplants from 2018 and a spike in multi-tissue donations, with an 81 per cent increase in skin donors. In 2018, the province recorded 1,235 transplants.

Innovations and initiatives

The new record was set largely thanks to new initiatives and technologies, according to TGLN. Advancements in antiviral drugs have aided the surge in donations by giving potential donors with prior medical conditions the ability to donate their organs. These donors accounted for 21 per cent of organ transplants in 2019.

The president and CEO of TGLN, Ronnie Gavsie, told CTVNews.ca that the number of registered donors with hepatitis C grew by 41 per cent as compared to 2018.

“Antiviral drugs, in particular hepatitis C antiviral drugs, have enabled us to transplant organs which were in the past not suitable for transplant. These kinds of innovations have dramatically increased the number of lives saved,” said Gavsie in a telephone interview.

Gavsie said the communication between hospitals and TGLN has been more efficient in 2019 because of initiatives that involved staff on all levels. Medical supervisors known as hospital donations physicians work on call at the hospitals to educate staff on how to identify potential donors. These real-time updates are then reported to TGLN.

This system of reporting has resulted in 7,901 organ referrals and 33,585 tissue referrals in the province.

“While we’re thrilled with the increase in donor numbers, we still have a long wait list. All that we are asking of the general public is they register to consent. That is the gift anyone can give,” Gavsie said.

Maariyah’s story

More than 1,600 people are on the wait list for a life-saving organ transplant in Ontario and every three days a Canadian will die before receiving a transplant, according to Gavsie. The longest wait time is often for a kidney transplant, at approximately two to five years. Someone in need of a heart transplant may wait up to six months.

Just over a year ago, 21-year-old Maariyah Rahman from Toronto was one of the people on the wait list. In December 2019 she celebrated her one-year anniversary of heart transplant surgery by donating $23,000 to the Toronto General Hospital, where she was a patient.

Rahman was diagnosed with heart failure in 2018 after she developed a cough that lasted for days — initially believed to be pneumonia.

“I started to develop a cough and I didn’t think much of it because it was flu season, but a few days later I started to develop chest pains. I felt really sick but I didn’t know how serious it was, so it was a huge shock to me,” Rahman told CTVNews.ca.

After more complications, Rahman had to undergo open-heart surgery to have a biventricular assist device (BVID) inserted in her heart to help it function properly while she waited to receive a heart transplant.

On Dec. 17, 2018 Rahman was number one on the Canadian transplant list for a heart transplant. Fortunately, she got a match within a week and was scheduled for surgery on Christmas Eve 2018.

After a successful surgery Rahman slowly began transitioning back into her old life. The recovery process was not easy and Rahman had to spend weeks in cardiac rehabilitation at Centenary Hospital in Toronto.

“It was a really huge adjustment I had to make. I lost a lot of muscle and I couldn’t even walk up the stairs without help. Going from someone who is always busy and always active, it was really hard to adjust to taking it easy and not being able to do anything,” said Rahman.

Rahman said the support of her family is what helped her get through therapy and her journey inspired her family members to register to donate.

“It was funny because in my family I was the only who was actually registered to become a donor. While I was in surgery for my transplant, I have a huge family so there were about 50 of them in the waiting room and as they were waiting, they were registering to become organ donors,” said Rahman.

In December 2019, Rahman and her family hosted a gala to raise funds for the University Health Network’s (UHN) transplant program at Toronto General Hospital. They raised a total of $23,000.

“I felt that it was the perfect way to celebrate a year of healthiness and community by giving back to the institution that saved my life,” Rahman said.

Since her life-changing surgery Rahman became more involved in her community and received a grant from her university to start the Ryerson Gift of Life Project, an advocacy group for organ donations and transplants. She also volunteers at the UHN transplant program as a patient ambassador where she gets invited to speak to high school students across the city.

“Now a lot of people I know register [to be donors] because they heard about what I went through and before that organ donations were never on their mind. By raising awareness in what I went through and talking about it openly, I think that I convinced a lot of people,” Rahman said.

The Trillium Gift of Life Network reported that more than 4.2 million Ontarians have registered for organ and tissue donation. The agency says it’s important to register because families are less likely to provide consent on behalf of their loved one in the event of their death.

“Registration has a strong connection to donation,” TGLN said in a statement. “When a potential donor has formally registered to be an organ and tissue donor, families almost always proceed with donation. In the absence of registration, families only consent half the time.”

Source link

[picardonhealth]

How can we ration health care, without discrimination?

Criteria must be clear and based on evidence, and we can’t be biased when deciding who should receive life-saving procedures

André Picard, The Globe and Mail 

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

An Ontario judge has ruled that a lawsuit against a Toronto hospital can proceed. The hospital faces allegations that it violated the constitutional rights of patients who were seeking liver transplants; the hospital refused to perform the procedure on patients who had not stopped drinking for a prolonged period of time.

The ruling is a technical one, but nonetheless important.

Justice Andras Schreck of the Ontario Superior Court rejected arguments put forward by University Health Network that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply to them because they are a private entity that made an internal policy decision to refuse the transplants.

The court ruled that when government delegates responsibility for an important public program such as medicare to a private entity, its decisions must respect the Charter.

The ruling has important implications because almost all health services in Canada are contracted out to not-for-profit (such as UHN) and for-profit entities.

Then there is the thorny issue at the heart of the lawsuit itself: Can governments, hospitals and individual physicians say no to providing a treatment without violating the Charter rights of patients?

There is pretty broad consensus that it is impossible, practically and financially, to provide all care to all people all the time. The fundamental question, then, is how can we – and should we – ration health care?

In other words, hospitals, physicians and other providers have to discriminate, but how can they do it in a fair and transparent manner?

What are, in the language of the Constitution, the “reasonable limits” to providing care? What is the balance between patient rights and responsibilities? And who determines those boundaries?

These are some of the questions at the heart of the lawsuit brought forward by the families of two men, Mark Selkirk and Mark Williams.

Mr. Selkirk was admitted to Toronto General Hospital in early November, 2010, with acute alcoholic hepatitis. He needed a liver transplant but was told that, to be eligible, he had to be abstinent from alcohol for six months. His wife offered to donate a part of her liver (live transplants were not subject to the sobriety rule), but the hospital still refused. Mr. Selkirk died two weeks later.

Debra Selkirk has since made it her life’s mission to strike down the rules, which she says discriminate unfairly against people such as her husband, who suffered from substance use disorder.

Trillium Gift of Life Network, the government agency that co-ordinates organ and tissue donation in Ontario, loosened its rules a bit, setting up a pilot project where it replaced the rigid six-month sobriety rule with a criterion that patients must “commit to alcohol abstinence.”

Mr. Williams, who was hospitalized in May of this year, felt unable to make that commitment. He was refused a transplant and died, and his family joined the lawsuit.

A history of alcohol use or misuse should not automatically make a patient ineligible for a liver transplant. Nor should we, a priori, refuse lung transplants to smokers.

But organs are among the rarest of commodities. We need to ensure they go not only to those in most need, but those who will benefit most. As a health system, we must maximize our return on investment.

If someone who receives a new liver resumes drinking alcohol, their recovery will likely be impaired. What we don’t know, however, is how likely someone with substance use disorder is to relapse. The studies are all over the map.

Ultimately, it has to come down to the clinical judgment of health professionals – in this case hepatologists and transplant specialists.

The new court ruling said hospital policies are subject to the provisions of the Charter. It is not clear whether the decisions of individual physicians are subject to the same rules.

There have been countless complaints to regulatory bodies and human-rights commissions about these issues: Physicians who refuse to treat patients because they are smokers, surgeons who refuse surgery to people with obesity, hospitals that refuse transplants to people who drink and governments that refuse to approve or pay for a drug because costs outweigh benefits.

These rulings invariably come to similar conclusions: Health-care providers cannot refuse care based on prejudices or stereotypes, but they can refuse or limit care if a medical condition could result in significant complications or costs.

But exclusion criteria must be clear and based on evidence, and we can’t let bias creep in when making difficult rationing decisions.

Finding the juste milieu is never going to be easy, but we have to debate these mind-bogglingly complex questions openly, not just punt them to the courts.

[sadriyassine]

The six-month sobriety rule is just one of many conditions that patients needing liver transplants must meet to be considered for a transplant, according to guidelines set by Trillium Gift of Life Network, the agency that co-ordinates organ donations in Ontario.

from CBC | Health News http://ift.tt/2kVawZL

[allthecanadianpolitics]

In an Open Letter to Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Dr. Eric Hoskins and President and CEO of the Trillium Gift of Life Network Ronnie Gavsie, Amnesty International has called for Inuk activist Delilah Saunders to be deemed eligible for the liver transplant urgently needed to save her life.  Amnesty International has also urged that no one else be denied access to organ transplants in Ontario for reasons that would be considered discriminatory under international human rights standards. The Letter notes that “denying access to treatment based on unjustified restrictions or misconceptions about the use of alcohol would contravene Canada’s obligations under international human rights law.”

“We are deeply concerned that the decision to deny Delilah access to a liver transplant is on the basis of a policy which is discriminatory and inconsistent with Canada’s international human rights obligations,” said Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada. “Our heart breaks for her family and loved ones, who have already endured so much, as they work desperately to ensure Delilah receives the transplant needed to save her life. What is at stake here is not only the case of a single patient, but a discriminatory policy which denies other individuals access to potentially life-saving transplants in Ontario as well.”

Continue Reading.

[mtariqniaz]

Many transplant patients adhering to 6-month sobriety rule improve to point operation not needed: doctor

The six-month sobriety rule is just one of many conditions that patients needing liver transplants must meet to be considered for a transplant, according to guidelines set by Trillium Gift of Life Network, the agency that co-ordinates organ donations in Ontario.

The issue has surfaced since Delilah Saunders, 26, an Inuk activist from Happy Valley Goose Bay, N.L., was admitted to a hospital in…

[trainitright]

Seven of the Most Common Myths about Organ Donation Debunked

Seven of the Most Common Myths about Organ Donation Debunked

Seven of the Most Common Myths about Organ Donation Debunked

  TORONTO, April 24, 2017 /CNW/ – This National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week (April 23 – 29, 2017), Trillium Gift of Life Network is debunking myths about organ and tissue donation and encouraging Ontarians to register consent for donation.

Registration has the power to saves lives and it gives hope to the over 1,500…