A national organ-sharing program has turned bleak odds to brighter days for 52 Manitobans who’ve received desperately needed kidneys over the past 11 years.
The Canadian Blood Services’ Highly Sensitized Patient Program, in collaboration with Transplant Manitoba, changes the lives of people who carry antibodies preventing them from being matched with 95 per cent of donor organs.
“We can’t give them that organ, no matter how long we waited,” said Dr. Julie Ho, medical director for Transplant Manitoba. “They’re really disadvantaged in trying to get a match.”
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
Dr. Julie Ho, medical director of the adult kidney transplant program at Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg, speaks during an April announcement by Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara after a record number of Manitobans donated and received kidneys last year.
Receiving a kidney transplant has a “massive impact” on patients, Ho said. It means they can get back to school or work and continue living more normal lives.
“We know that compared to staying on dialysis, people with a kidney transplant tend to live longer… but they also feel better,” she said. “Their quality of life is better. Life on dialysis is really challenging.”
Most transplant organs come from deceased donors, Ho said, but there are, occasionally, non-directed anonymous donors who step forward to help those in greatest need.
There have been 44 kidneys donated through the local organization.
At any given time, there are about 200 people waiting for a kidney transplant in the province. More than 70,000 Manitobans are registered to donate out of a pool of almost 1.4 million people living in the province.
The program “buys patients another lottery ticket” and increases their chances of finding a match in the larger pool of potential donors in Canada, said Ho.
Previously, patients could wait as long as 15 years to get a kidney transplant. Many died before a match was found.
More than 1,000 of the hardest-to-match patients across Canada have received transplant organs through the program.
Ho said one organ donor can save up to eight lives. To register, all that’s needed is name, health card number and date of birth at signupforlife.ca.
jura.mcilraith@freepress.mb.ca