Alberta surgeon answers organ donation queries online

The awareness campaign fororgan donationtook to social mediaWednesday with an interactive online chat.

Alberta Health Services hosted an hour-long discussion on Twitter where participants could ask questions about organ donations and receive answers inreal time from a transplant surgeon.

"Donation has been a bit of a challenge for us in Canada," said Dr. Norman Kneteman.

"It's been relativey stagnant for a few years, and in fact in Alberta it's been falling for the last several years. Because of that, we now are in the unfortunate situation of having about one person in five who gets listed for a transplant who in fact dies before they have the opportunity to go forward with the transplant."

Currently there are 786 Albertans waiting for organ or tissue transplants, but justone donor can benefit 80 people.

The event was part of National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week, which runs until Saturday. Albertans participated in the chatby following @AHS_Innovates or using the awareness week hashtag of #NOTDAWAB.