The Trillium Gift of Life Network gave Health Sciences North two awards Monday for the hospital's efforts to facilitate local organ donations.
Health Sciences North received the Hospital Achievement Award for reaching the provincial organ donation conversion rate, and the Trillium Gift of Life Network Award of Excellence.
In 2015-2016, the hospital achieved an organ donation conversion rate of 69 per cent.
In other words, 69 per cent of intensive care unit patients who were eligible to be organ donors were able to do so. The provincial benchmark is 67 per cent.
Despite the rate, Dr. Bhanu Nalla, Health Sciences North's hospital donation physician, said only around one per cent of ICU patients become organ donors.
“One challenge is to see if a person is medically suitable to be an organ donor,” he said.
To be an organ donor, doctors must be certain a patient will die soon, and that patient also needs to meet certain criteria, and have organs that are healthy enough to donate.
Even once doctors identify those patients, they still face a number of hurdles before they can donate their organs, Nalla said.
While Greater Sudbury has the third highest rate of registered organ donors in the province, that rate still sits at 52 per cent of the population.
Not all intensive care patients who could donate their organs have registered to do so.
In some cases, even if a patient is a registered organ donor, their family members can choose to veto that decision if they haven't shared their wishes.
According to the Trillium Gift of Life Network, about 13 per cent of registered organ donors in Ontario are vetoed in this way.
When a patient is ready to donate their organs, and their family has approved that decision, Health Sciences North needs to bring in specialized organ retrieval teams from Toronto, Ottawa or London.
“I'm amazed we get this far,” Nalla said, referring to the hospital's 69 per cent conversion rate over the last year.
Paul McNeil, a liver transplant recipient and cardiac rehab employee with Health Sciences North, said he was proud to be part of an organization that has exceeded the provincial standard for organ donations.
Before he received his liver transplant on Aug. 10, 2007, McNeil said he had been given less than a month to live, and had already written his own obituary.
Before he was diagnosed with multiple forms of hepatitis, he was an avid runner, and had been reduced from running marathons to relying on a walker.
He has run two marathons since his transplant.
Nancy Griffin, the widow of local radio host and organ donor Rich Griffin, said that while Sudbury's organ donor numbers keep climbing, there remains a lot of work to do to bring them closer to 100 per cent.
Through her organization 1 Saves 8, Griffin also helps families from Northern Ontario cover costs when they have to travel to Toronto, Ottawa or London for an organ transplant.
To become a registered organ donor visit BeADonor.ca.
