A former tissue bank specialist in New Brunswick says a shortage of staff to collect donations has left the system broken.
Parise Leger says she was devastated by the story of Miramichi-area teen Avery Astle, who died in a car accident Easter weekend. His parents wanted to donate his organs and tissues but were told no one from the specialized team was available to perform the procedure.
“I was heartbroken for the family, because I know how important it is for family members to honour the patient’s wishes,” Leger said Thursday.
Leger, who left the team in 2017, said at one point there were just two people in New Brunswick assigned to collect donations of tissue such as heart valves, bones and tendons.
READ MORE: Expert says N.B. family’s inability to donate dead son’s organs illustrates gap in system
“Obviously we didn’t cover 365 days,” she said. “We weren’t actually full time with the program. We would have four days of office in the tissue bank, working on charts and processing bone in the operating room, and at any given time we would get a call to screen a donor and hit the road or go to the (operating room) to do a recovery.”
She said the organ donation program was separate and had 365-day coverage.
Leger, who now works in Nova Scotia, said she often worked 30 hours straight. The job’s demands made it hard to recruit and retain staff.
She said the case of 16-year-old Astle “clearly shows that the system is broken, and that there need to be changes.”
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Geri Geldart, vice president clinical services with the province’s Horizon Health Network, said recent staff turnover has created gaps in coverage.
“Until our newly recruited team members have been fully trained, there may be times when we are unable to provide the service,” she said. “Our organ donation team has not been affected by this shortage.”
Earlier this month, David Hartell, executive director of the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program, said an estimated 4,000 Canadians who die each year have the potential to become organ donors, but only about 800 end up doing so, despite the fact that 90 per cent of Canadians have expressed support for donation.
He said the experience of Astle’s parents highlights the sad reality that even families who want to be donors sometimes aren’t given the chance due to a lack of hospital resources, trained personnel or rigorous procedures to prioritize donation.
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