Make your wishes known

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/05/2019 (2314 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I was happy to see the Province of Manitoba has moved its organ donation registry online. 

Instead of signing a card that can easily be misplaced, people can visit signupforlife.ca and make their wishes known.

More than 11,000 Manitobans signed up to be organ donors in 2018, those numbers getting a bump after it became known that Humboldt Broncos player Logan Boulet signed up to be an organ donor shortly before he died in that tragic accident. Yet with the number of Manitobans willing to be organ donors at 37,000, that means only 2.8 percent of Manitobans have made the pledge.

If you are on the fence about signing up, visit a dialysis clinic and then imagine yourself or a loved one hooked up to one of those machines for a few hours a day, multiple times every week. My wife had that experience, going to Seven Oaks Hospital until we could set up a dialysis system at home. 

While we were fortunate that our daughter agreed to donate a kidney to her mom, other people aren’t as lucky. I often think back to some of the people I met at the dialysis clinic who were resigned to the reality they would have to do this for the rest of their lives. 

One lady I met had to take a Handi Transit bus from across town several times per week. She was the first one on the bus, meaning she was the last one off at the end of the day. She went for dialysis, waited for her fellow patients and took the bus home again. Each treatment day was an eight-hour experience. For her it was essentially a job.

A good friend of mine also needed a transplant but could not find a suitable donor in his family. So he waited. And waited. Three times per week after work he took dialysis treatments at St. Boniface Hospital and hoped for a call.

The call eventually came. A young man died in a motorcycle accident. He had signed his organ donor card and made his wishes known to his loved ones.

The next few moments must be surreal. Many people already have a bag packed because they have to leave for a hospital on short notice. They are excited because their lives will soon get better, but they acknowledge this is only possible because tragedy struck another. While one family rejoices, another mourns.

That reality, the process of dialysis, the education on diet and lifestyle changes, and all of the different drugs one has to take both before and after surgery, are reminders to never take that life-saving gift for granted. Be assured the recipient will take good care of it.

So if you are thinking about becoming an organ donor, visit signupforlife.ca 

It only takes a few moments. And be sure to make sure your family knows your wishes.

Tony Zerucha is a community correspondent for East Kildonan. Email him at tzerucha@gmail.com

Tony Zerucha
East Kildonan community correspondent

Tony Zerucha is a community correspondent for East Kildonan. Email him at tzerucha@gmail.com

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