Sarah Beth had completed the organ donation card that came with her driver’s licence renewal. Only days before her death, she had discussed with her family that if she were to die she wanted someone else to live.

Since 1968, organs have only been taken from patients who are brain-dead. With brain death, the heart and lungs are still functioning. This keeps the organs in good condition. With cardiac death the organs must be harvested immediately.

Sarah Beth’s parents, Emile and Beth, worked with doctors at the Ottawa Hospital and the Trillium Gift of Life Network to make sure her last wish was fulfilled. Her kidneys were successfully transplanted, saving two lives. She became the first Canadian patient in almost 40 years to donate organs after cardiac death.

Donation after cardiac death (DCD) marks a new era for organ donation in Canada with the  potential to increase organ donations by 25 percent nationally. In the past, families supportive of organ donation have been told their loved ones were not eligible to donate because they did not meet the criteria for brain death. This is no longer the case.

Currently about 4,000 Canadians are waiting for transplants, of which 70 percent need a kidney. In 2005 there were 283 patients who died while waiting.

Over the past 20 years, the number of traffic fatalities (a major source of organ donations) has dropped by close to 40 percent. This impressive progress is expected to continue as Canada’s Road Safety Vision 2010 targets key problem areas. Meanwhile, the waiting list for life-saving organs grows.

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