Canada is launching an ambitious multimillion dollar programme to enable patients requiring organ donation to quickly track down donors from across the country.
Canadian Blood Services announced Tuesday that provincial and territorial health ministers have expanded the agency's mandate from blood to organ and tissue donation and transplantation. Federal, provincial and territorial governments are contributing $35 million over the next five years to fund the program.
World Organ Donor Week
Organ donation, considered the highest form of human service, allows the opportunity to give life and let others live, even though we are gone.
Organ donation, considered the highest form of human service, allows the opportunity to give life and let others live, even though we are gone.
"It's a complex system that will take some time to change," Beed told CBC News on Wednesday. "But I'm very optimistic that in a three- to five-year timeline, things will absolutely be better."
The new system will raise standards and encourage more education among health care providers and the public, he added.
Canada is unable to keep pace with the demand for organs. Unlike other developed countries, it has lacked a national transplant system, which resulted in wildly varying rates of organ donation between provinces.
On Dec. 31, 2007, 4,195 Canadians were on wait-lists for organ transplants. In the same year, 193 Canadians died waiting for an organ transplant, according to Ottawa-based Canadian Blood Services.
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Ontario Addresses Shortage of Transplant Organs
Ontario will soon become the first province in Canada to start accepting transplant organs from people who have died of heart failure.
Ontario will soon become the first province in Canada to start accepting transplant organs from people who have died of heart failure.
The registries will include:
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46-Year-Old Canada Man Donates A Part Of His Liver To A Complete Stranger
In an extreme act of generosity, Canada based Kevin Gosling donated a part of his liver to a 5-year old comatose child to help him recover from an incurable liver disease.
In an extreme act of generosity, Canada based Kevin Gosling donated a part of his liver to a 5-year old comatose child to help him recover from an incurable liver disease.
• Those seeking kidneys or lungs from living donors.
• People who wish to donate organs when they die.
All provinces and territories have signed onto the new national system, with the exception of Quebec, which has its own provincial agency.
Source-Medindia
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