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Did You Know...?
Organ donation education: a key link in the donation chain.
A single donor can save up to 8 lives and give around 20 other people back their health.
In Quebec, the youngest organ donor was only 48 hours old, whereas the oldest was 92 years old!
Just a little over 1% of the population dies under conditions that are favorable for organ donation.
Each year, about about 800 people await a transplantation in Quebec. Unfortunately, about 30 of them die because they don’t receive an organ in time.
The vast majority of countries will only proceed with a transplant upon receiving consent from the family. This is true in Spain, the country with the highest donor rates in the world.
A lobe of the liver or a kidney can be given by a living donor.
Corneas and certain tissues can be donated until age 85.
Transplant Quebec coordinates the organ donation process for all of Quebec. As for tissue and bone marrow donation, it is the responsibility of Héma-Québec.
A World to Discover!
Information about organ and tissue donation regarding transplants and about other donations.
Dr. Matthew Weiss
Dr. Matthew Weiss, pediatric intensivist, CHU de Québec - Université Laval, explains organ and tissue donation.
In Quebec, anyone can decide to donate her or his organs and tissues when they die. It is a gesture that is anonymous, voluntary, free of charge and without strings attached.
To do so, the person must die in hospital and under specific circumstances. Only 1.4% of people die from "brain death" as it is known, the state in which organ donation is possible. This represents a maximum of 450 to 500 people per year for all of Quebec, if all the requirements are met every time.
The organs that can be retrieved for transplantation are: both lungs, the heart, the liver (which can be divided into two), both kidneys, the pancreas and the intestines. Each deceased donor can thus save up to eight lives.
In addition, a person can donate a kidney or part of their liver, as well as several tissues including corneas, heart valves and tendons, while living.
Other donations, like that of blood or stem cells, are also of great importance.