Information and testimonials about donations that help save or improve the quality of lives. Click on the illustrations to discover information about donations and transplantation after death and about living donation.
In Quebec, there are two types of potential organ donors: Donation after Circulatory Determination of Death (DCD) and Donation after Neurological Determination of Death (NDD).
It is possible to donate a kidney or part of your liver while you are alive. Living donation reduces the waiting period for a transplant. Other donations, like blood and stem cell donation, are also of great importance.
Currently, approximately 800 people are waiting for a transplant in Quebec and more than 4,000 in Canada.
In recent years, an average of 180 donors have enabled more than 500 transplants each year. The survival rate of transplant recipients varies depending on the organ, but is generally between 70% and 90% and that, 10 years after surgery.
In Quebec, Transplant Quebec is solely responsible for coordinating the organ donation process.
The Allocation of Organs
The allocation of organs is carried out according to rigorous protocols which take various factors into account:
the blood group of the donor and the potential recipient;
the compatibility of antigens between the donor and the potential recipient;
the weight and height of the donor and the potential recipient;
the medical urgency status of the person awaiting an organ;
the date when the recipient was registered on the transplant waiting list.
The name of all the persons awaiting an organ transplant is entered on a single list managed by Transplant Quebec.
A heart transplant involves removing the defective heart and implantable devices, such as a cardiac defibrillator or a pacemaker, and replacing them with a healthy heart from an organ donation.
DURATION OF THE OPERATION
From 4 to 6 hours
PRESERVATION PERIOD
For 4 to 6 hours
INTERESTING FACTS
After a transplant, nearly 85% return to work or to activities they had previously enjoyed.
In very young children, the donor and the recipient do not have to be of the same blood type.
In a therapeutic impasse, the mechanical heart technique acts as a "bridge" while waiting for a heart.
FROM YESTERDAY TO TODAY
The first heart transplant was performed in South Africa by Dr. Christian Barnard on December 3, 1967.
The first heart transplant in Canada took place at the Montreal Heart Institute on May 31, 1968.
The first pediatric heart transplant was performed by Dr. Pierre Chartrand at Sainte-Justine Hospital in 1984.
Kidney transplantation involves the transplantation of a new functioning kidney to replace the defective kidneys. This operation consists of connecting the veins, arteries and the urinary tract to the bladder.
DURATION OF THE OPERATION
From 2 to 3 hours
PRESERVATION PERIOD
For 24 to 48 hours
INTERESTING FACTS
Seventy-five percent of people waiting for a transplant are waiting for a kidney.
While waiting for their transplant, many patients are required to undergo 12 to 14 hours of dialysis per week to remove toxins from their blood.
The recipient's kidneys are usually left in place and the transplanted kidney is placed in a different spot.
Often, the new kidney begins to produce urine as soon as blood begins circulating there.
Anyone who is healthy can donate a kidney while they are alive.
The age of consent ranges from 16 to 19 depending on the province. In Quebec, it's 18 years old.
FROM YESTERDAY TO TODAY
The first successful kidney transplant was performed in 1954 by an American, Joseph Murray.
the patient's pancreas does not produce enough insulin, a hormone essential for digestion
AVERAGE WAITING TIME IN QUEBEC
355 days
SURGERY
The operation consists of the removal of a healthy pancreas from a recently deceased person or, in rare cases, part of the pancreas of a living person, followed by its implantation in a person with severe diabetes.
DURATION OF THE OPERATION
3 hours
PRESERVATION PERIOD
For 12 to 24 hours
INTERESTING FACTS
Because the pancreas is a vital organ that performs functions necessary for the digestion process, the recipient's pancreas is left in place and the transplanted pancreas is implanted in a different spot.
Over 90% of those who receive a pancreas transplant also receive a kidney at the same time.
FROM YESTERDAY TO TODAY
The first pancreas transplant was performed in 1966 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Bowel transplantation is a rare surgery that allows people with intestinal failure to regain the ability to eat regularly and live more normal lives.
DURATION OF THE OPERATION
From 8 to 12 hours or longer
PRESERVATION PERIOD
For 6 to 10 hours
INTERESTING FACTS
More than half of intestinal transplant recipients are under the age of 18.
Half of the people who need a bowel transplant also need a liver transplant.
About a month after the bowel transplant, the person can resume living and eating normally, even if they have to take anti-rejection medicine for life.
FROM YESTERDAY TO TODAY
To date, small intestine transplants are rarely performed anywhere in the world.
In Quebec, like elsewhere in the world, there are two types of potential deceased donors: the donor after determination of circulatory death (DCD) and the donor after neurological determination of death (NDD).
Although the number of potential donors after DCD is greater than that of donors after NDD, they make up only about 20% of all donors collected. They are people who are kept alive by devices and who suffer from serious injuries or illnesses that preclude any possibility of recovery. When the devices are removed, the heart stops after a few minutes and death is diagnosed and confirmed according to circulatory death criteria.
The second type are donors after NDD. These represent about 80% of donors collected. The donor after neurological death is in a state of “brain death”. The brain has been totally destroyed (by a trauma to the head or from a stroke, for example). This means the permanent stopping of all functions of the brain, "the irreversible loss of the capacity for consciousness combined with the irreversible loss of all brainstem functions, including the capacity to breath". (Canadian Neurocritical Care Group 1999)
In this video clip, Dr. Weiss explains how that when the brain, which is soft and squishy, is injured, it begins to swell within the skull, which is very rigid. The pressure builds up. When the pressure becomes higher inside the skull than the pressure of the blood flow, the blood cannot get in and the brain stops functioning. The brain needs a constant supply of blood to function.
Dr. Weiss goes on to explain that in brain death, the patient is completely unresponsive to any stimulus whatsoever and loses all brain stem reflexes like the ability to cough, breath, or dilate his pupils. As well, he is unhooked for a time from the breathing machine to make sure he does not breathe at all. Dr. Weiss states that the criteria are very strict. “The person is not in a coma, he is brain dead. This is because, no patient fully confirmed in this state has ever come back. The patient is medically, legally and ethically dead.” At this time, vital organs may be recovered for transplantation.
Tissue Donation
Donating tissue can improve the quality of life. For example, it can treat severe burns (skin grafts) and restore sight to the visually impaired (cornea grafts).
One donor can help up to 20 people and it can even save lives!
Tissue donation can be done at any age, from newborns to the elderly, but it must be done within 24 hours following death.
As with organ donation, no tissue is removed without the family’s consent.
In Quebec, Héma-Québec is solely responsible for coordinating the process for donating tissue, blood and others.
“The donor changed my life, giving me a gift that no one else could give me,” said 18-year old Carleigh from Prince Edward Island, who received a cornea transplant at just eight weeks old after being born blind in her left eye. “Now, I can do everything, just like everyone else.”
Heart Valves
Heart tissue can be donated separately from the heart.
SURGERY
The heart valves are recovered when the whole heart is not viable for transplantation.
EXPECTED RESULT
To enable the patient's heart to function normally
FREQUENCY
Among the tissues most often transplanted
MISCELLANEOUS FACT
Heart tissue donations are used primarily to repair genetic abnormalities in young children and babies.
Veins and Arteries
The role of blood vessels is to carry blood to all organs.
The arteries leave from the heart and the veins carry the blood back to the heart.
SURGERY
Many people lose the circulation in their legs (or their heart) due to illness or trauma.
EXPECTED RESULT
Reconstruction that restores the recipient’s normal blood flow
Ligaments and Tendons
A ligament connects two bones together in a joint.
A tendon connects a muscle to a bone.
SURGERY
Traumatic injuries or sports injuries can destroy joints, causing pain and loss of mobility.
Bone transplants are used to replace bone that has been lost because of cancer, other diseases or an accident.
SURGERY
For a bone graft, part of the tibia, ribs, fibula or pelvis can be removed.
EXPECTED RESULTS
To avoid amputation, promote healing and maintain mobility
MISCELLANEOUS FACTS
Transplanted bone does not survive long, but it stimulates the growth of new bone, stabilizes the location and provides a structure for the new bone to fill.
Depending on the type of transplant, more than 10 people can benefit from a single bone donation.
Allotransplants (or allografts) are, for example, the transplantation of an organ or tissue from one human (the donor) to another human (the recipient). There is also the possibility of transplanting an arm, and even a face.
Speaking of this, in 2018, at Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont in Montreal, Dr. Daniel Borsuk and his team performed the first facial transplant in Canada. It was a 30-hour surgery that required the expertise of multiple specialists and the exceptional collaboration of more than a hundred other people!
Dr. Daniel Borsuk, chief plastic surgeon at CHU Sainte-Justine, explains the advances in this area.
In adults, transplantation is performed using the entire right lobe of the donor's liver. It is a major operation, but the risk of death to the donor is very low and in a few months, her or his liver will have regained 90% of its initial size.
Kidney
Part of the Liver
Blood and Plasma
Stem Cells