The Organ Donation and Transplant Association of Canada

Teens 4 Transplants Contest

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:40:28 +0000

Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry! The creativity of the entries were outstanding. Your PSA’s were informative and will help raise organ donor awareness all across Canada.

Our panel of judges for the contest included The Amazing Kreskin, Brian Michaels, John Balogh, Ali Agar and Stephanie Bartolac (our January Facebook challenge winner) – who we’d like to thank for their time and ongoing support.

Lastly, to all those who voted – thanks for participating and helping to make this contest a success.

And the Winners are…

Teens 4 Transplants
PSA Contest Winner’s

Grand Prize Winner:
Maggie, Bayview Secondary School, of Richmond Hill, ON.

School Endorsed Winner:
Andy, Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, Tumbler Ridge, BC.

Winners by Most Popular Vote:
Art Category: Alex, Elmwood High School, Stittsville, ON.
Music Category: Maggie, Bayview Secondary School, Richmond Hill, ON.
Video Category: Jacob and Marie, St. Paul Secondary School, Mississauga, ON.
Creative Writing Category: Kayla, St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary Russell, ON.

Volunteer Update 2010

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:39:47 +0000

PSA Contest: Teens Show Us Your Talent and WIN CASH

admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:17:55 +0000

Teenagers are among the most creative people in the world. If you can prove it to us, you could win cash – up to $2,000! Create a public service announcement (a document, image, audio file or video that informs the public about the importance of organ donation) and if yours is voted the best, you can win!

Here’s how:
1. Choose the category in which you wish to compete (the contest is open to all teenagers that have not yet graduated from high school). The categories are listed to the right.
2. Create your best PSA! The main messages to convey are listed to the right.
3. If you wish, ask your school to support your entry. Your teacher or principal simply needs to email an endorsement to entries@organdonations.ca to support your good deed. This will make your school eligible for a $2,000 prize.
4. Email your entry (attach any file type or include a link to a web page) to entries@organdonations.ca as soon as it’s ready and get people to vote! Voting closes January 31, 2010.
5. If you have not attained the age of majority, we will send you a parental consent form to get signed.
6. Tell all your family and friends to visit www.teens4transplants.com and vote for their favourite!
7. In February, 2010, ODTAC will:
• award $500 to the creator(s) of the most popular PSA from each category (based on votes),
• award $500 to the creator(s) and $2,000 to the school whose student(s) submitted the most creative PSA (as selected by ODTAC) among the entries supported by a school, and
• award a $1,000 GRAND PRIZE to the creator(s) of the most effective PSA (as selected by ODTAC) among all entries.
8. ODTAC may then use the GRAND PRIZE winning PSA in its national awareness campaign!

Need more info? Visit www.teens4transplants.com

Funding Research to Save Lives

admin — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:10:00 +0000

Donations from the private sector provide the funds needed to raise public awareness and to fund advancements in transplant research. For the next three years, every $1.00 donated to organ regeneration research will be matched by an additional $4.00 from a funding partner. Even a small contribution can make a big difference.

Click the blue Donate Now button on the right side of the screen and watch your donation multiply.

Working Together To Make a Difference – Options for Life.

admin — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:00:44 +0000

There’s a new page on the site – called Options for Life. Together with St. Joseph’s Hospital and students from St. Lawrence College a video was created to educate people on the waiting list about the innovative Mariginal Donor Program.

To watch the video and find out more, click here.

Michel’s Story

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:32:54 +0000

Take ‘recycling’ to its maximum
By Joanne Anka
(8 minute ToastMaster’s Speech)

I’d like you to meet my son, Michel. Fourteen years ago, when I was pregnant with Michel, I went for a routine ultrasound. After an hour, I asked the technician why it’s taking so long. The technician replied, “The fetus is not emptying its bladder. I’m waiting for the fetus to pee.”

Well, it didn’t pee. The doctors concluded that there was a blockage in the urethra. That’s the tube that connects the bladder to the outside of your body. They predicted there would be bladder and kidney damage.

So I had a progressive surgery where a tube was inserted through my abdomen, into the fetus’ abdomen, and into its bladder so it could drain. Otherwise, the bladder would have burst. This saved the baby’s life.

At birth, Michel was born with severe kidney failure. At age 3, he underwent his 13th surgery which was a kidney transplant. The kidney was donated by a living donor–his father, Claude…my husband.

Michel is now 13 years old and has always been very healthy. The doctors have always had great control of his condition. He leads a great life. He plays hockey, he’s a professional actor. But he takes medication 3 times a day and has a needle every night. In probably 10 years, he will need another kidney transplant because transplanted kidneys don’t last the rest of your life.

Ladies and gentlemen…This experience has taught me something that is very important…to sign my organ donor card. And I would like you all to consider the importance of signing a donor card too, if you haven’t done so already. I’m not appealing to you to sign a card so you can give a kidney to Michel. The next donor will probably be me anyway. In Canada, right now, there are more than 4000 people on the waiting list for a transplant. 250 of these people will die while on the waiting list…that’s 5 people per week dying in Canada…just because there aren’t enough organs and tissue available. There aren’t enough people signing their card.

Firstly let me explain that there are 3 types of donors:

1—living-related donor—like Claude to Michel
2– living donor—like a friend to a friend
3—cadaver donor—deceased person

It’s for donor type number 3 that we need to sign our donor cards. We never know when a fatal accident might occur. And you can’t raise your arm and say after the fact, ”Wait a minute, I want to give my organs!” You have to make that decision now!

• One cadaver can provide organs and tissue for 75 recipients.

• Studies show that donating organs and tissue after you leave this world helps families to cope with their loss by knowing that their loved one saved other lives.

Everyone can be a donor.
• Age is not a concern: The oldest Canadian organ donor was 92 years old.
• Medical history is not a concern: Even totally blind people can donate their eyes. And aids patients can give to other aids patients.

o 1-Sign a donor card and carry it with you.

o 2-Tell your families about your decision so that it will be honoured in a difficult time, because 40% of organ donors are lost because they have not told their families and in the event of a tragedy, the families are not willing to let their loved ones organs go.

Some people are concerned that doctors won’t do everything they can to save their life in an emergency if they have signed their card. This is a myth.
If you have a serious emergency, you would be seen by a doctor who most closely matches your medical needs. And doctors are in the business of saving lives. They don’t say “Hey Frank, let’s let this one go and give the organs to that boy down the street”. Once all lifesaving methods have been exhausted, the doctors will then refer a patient to the transplant team, which is a whole other team of doctors.

I brought with me tonight, organ donor cards and pamphlets, which I will put on the back table. Please take one and give this some serious consideration.

The way I see it…We are living in a world of recycling. Let’s recycle ourselves and save some lives. There’s no point in leaving this world with perfectly good organs and tissues.

Take a look at my son Michel. You see a healthy happy boy. Transplants save lives.

2009 Brochures

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:51:19 +0000

Click on the image above to learn more about Simple Ways to Save Lives

To find out more about the medical research we fund, click on the image above.

5 myths about organ donation are discussed in this brochure, to read about them click on the image above.

Call to Artists and Celebrities

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:27:27 +0000

Click on the image above to see how you can help make a difference.

Visit The Amazing Kreskin.

Kristy’s Story

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:45:23 +0000

When I was 13 years old I was diagnosed with Restrictive Cardiomyopathy. Restrictive Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart in which the muscles of the heart turn into a fibrous material and restrict the heart from filling with blood between heart beats. At the time of my diagnosis in 1995, the disease was extremely rare, it was reported that 90% of patients die within one year of diagnosis. I was referred to Edmonton, University of Alberta Hospitals and was put on the Heart transplant waiting list in January 1996. My pediatric cardiologist in Calgary knew the severity of this disease and knew that my need for a heart transplant was very high, therefore he recommended my parents to fight the Alberta Government to have me double listed on a transplant list in the United States, to double my chances of receiving a life saving organ. We appealed the Government and won the appeal and were given approval to double list in the United States. Prior to being given approval to double list, someone very generous had entered my name to receive a wish from the wish foundation. As a young child I was very concerned that I would not live to see my wish come true, so the Wish Foundation agreed to grant me my wish to meet country superstar Reba McIntyre at the Texoma Medical Center in Denison, Texas, while still on the waiting list for a heart. The Wish Foundation set up the wish and had arranged for my family and I to stay for one week at the ranch in Texas, we were scheduled to fly out May 25, 1996. We arranged to have a leer jet on standby at the Denison airport in case a heart was available, and I would have to come back to Canada.

May 25, 1996 our family received news that we won the fight to double list and I was able to double list in the United Sates. On May 25, 1996 my family and I were on our way to Texas. After a number of hours in the Dallas Fort Worth Air port, we finally found our luggage and located our rental car and were on our way to Denison, when suddenly my beeper went off…..
We stopped at a taco bell that we had seen on the side of the road, from the highway, to use the pay phone to call Edmonton. This was call that saved my life; they had a new heart waiting for me.
May 26, 1996 I received my life saving heart transplant.

I was told by several doctors that I would not be able to have children, because the medication that I was on was very powerful and would not allow my body to carry a pregnancy. In March 2001, I defied the odds, I was pregnant with twins. September 30, 2001 I gave birth to two healthy babies, Shaylynn Dawn Plotsky, who I named after my heart donor, and Mckayla Mona Plotsky. The twins were born two months premature but otherwise very healthy; I became the first heart transplant recipient in the world to give birth to twins, and the first heart transplant to give birth while being on the medication that I was on. After hearing of this news, my donor family had requested to meet me. I met with my donors’ mother, aunt and sister. It was at this time that I learned that my heart donor wanted to have twins very badly and that she always talked about it; it was also at this time that I learned my heart transplant birthday, May 26, is also my donor’s birthday. I celebrate this day every year. Thanks to my heart donor I’m not only alive; I am a mother as well.

In November 2003, we received terrible news that Shaylynn was going to need a new heart; she was diagnosed with Restrictive Cardiomyopathy. Shaylynn was two years old at the time of diagnosis and was put on the waiting list December 2003. It scared me very much to know that there was a possibility that a heart may not come in time. January 23, 2004, we received the call telling us they had found a heart. The heart was coming from Michigan and alerted us that this could potentially be a dry run; this means that they prep you for surgery but you are not guaranteed the heart will be a suitable match until the organ gets to the hospital for more testing. We had our bags pack and we were off to Edmonton that day. Shaylynn received her new heart, but unfortunately there were some complications with the heart due to the distance that the heart had come from. We decided to insert a pacemaker in Shaylynn to help the heart beat on its own.

Shaylynn also received a wish from the wish foundation; her wish was to go to Disney Land to meet a real princess. We went to Disney Land April 2007 where she met Cinderella.

I celebrated my twelve year anniversary- and in May it will be 13 years post transplant. Shaylynn just celebrated her five year heart transplant anniversary; she is currently in grade one and doing amazing. McKayla is healthy and in Grade one as well. I am working full-time at a children’s mental health program and I am currently going to school. I am doing my degree in Health Administration.

I hope this helps people better understand the importance of signing your organ donor card, and talking to your family about organ donation.

Sign your donor card. If it wasn’t for the people who signed their donor cards, I wouldn’t be here and neither would my daughters.

Kristy

A New Look

admin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:33:13 +0000

Over the weekend we made some changes to our website. It’s our hope that the new look makes it easier for our visitors, donors and volunteers to find information and access what they need. The re-design will continue in the following weeks as we expand the site. Don’t worry if you can’t find what you’re looking for (the site is still being updated) – just call us toll free at 1.866.949.0003 or email us at info@organdonations.ca and we’ll be more than happy to assist you in any way that we can.

Feedback regarding the website can be sent to cstanton@organdonations.ca or comments can be left below.

Don’t forget: April 19-26th is National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week.

ps. a special thanks to the teams over at wordpress and one-theme. Due to their generosity we were able to update our site at no cost!