This week across the country, efforts were made to increase awareness of the importance of organ and tissue donation. Hundreds of people die every year waiting for a transplant.
A Saint John man is living proof of the power of signing an organ donor card.
Kevin Standing’s story is anything but ordinary.
“I have four organ transplants,” Standing said. “Two kidneys, done at two different times, a pancreas and a liver.”
With four transplants you can understand the 52-year-old’s passion.
“If somebody hadn’t unselfishly signed their organ donor card, especially for my liver, I wouldn’t be around here today. I’d be dead,” he said.
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The eye bank at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Saint John is where all donated corneas in New Brunswick come.
Debbie Jefferson works there and also with the provincial organ and tissue program. She says organ donors are heroes.
“One organ donor can save eight lives,” Jefferson said. “A tissue owner can improve the quality of life of 75 people and an ocular donor can restore sight for two people.”
Seventy-seven per cent of New Brunswickers have made their intentions known about organ donation. That is considered a good number but Jefferson says they’re trying to cut down on missed opportunities.
“We have the Human Tissue Gift Act which states that all in-hospital deaths have to be reported to a number and then the referrals come to us through them but we’re missing the individuals who pass away outside of hospitals,” Jefferson said.
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Standing has the strong opinion that organs and tissues should belong to the state upon death.
“I know that sounds deep and terrible but when we’re dead we don’t know we’re dead and we don’t use things when we’re dead.”
People who are living like Erik Millett are looking to help by being living donors.
“For a healthy individual who has two kidneys, if you can donate a kidney to someone who’s in need you can really improve their quality of life,” Millett said.
As for Standing, he now takes a different outlook on his life.
“I try not to sweat the small stuff because really, in the end, it’s all small stuff.”