How B.C.’s opioid crisis helped set a record for life-saving organ transplants

Vancouver set a record for the number of people who died of a drug overdose in 2017.

City of Vancouver staff say 335 people died amid the devastating opioid crisis, 43 per cent more than in 2016.

The crisis is killing people at an alarming rate. But it’s also adding to the number of organ donations that are helping to save lives in B.C.

Coverage of the opioid crisis on Globalnews.ca:

2:06 Opioid crisis poll

• Opioid crisis poll
• Opioid crisis front line workers
• Liberals fire back at Andrew Scheer over push to prosecute opioid addicts
• Playing the opioid ‘Whack-a-Mole’ game
• John Horgan pledges $322M to tackle the opioid crisis

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Last year, B.C. also set a record for the number of life-saving organ transplants that took place.

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There were 479 performed at three B.C. hospitals. That was thanks in part to a 25 per cent increase in the number of deceased donors.

And about one in five donors tested positive for fentanyl. But BC Transplant is careful to point out that’s not most of them.

“The majority of our donors are not fentanyl overdoses,” BC Transplant provincial medical director of transplant services Dr. David Landsberg told Global News.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The majority of our donors are not fentanyl overdoses," BC Transplant provincial medical director of transplant services Dr. David Landsberg told Global News.

“The referral rate going up is from any type of potential death.”

One of the beneficiairies of an organ transplant?

Allison Snowdon, one of 52 people who had a lung transplant in B.C. in 2017.

“You are giving life,” she said of donations. “It’s not about death because you can’t do anything about that. It’s very awful when it’s happened, but you can save, you know, six lives.”

One statistic that isn’t going up is the number of living donors — it’s been flat recently.

Nevertheless, B.C. now leads Canada in giving people a second chance at life.