Ontario law boosts organ donations

Organ donations in Ontario have tripled since the introduction of new death-reporting rules in January, a provincial agency said Tuesday.

The new rules, which came into effect Jan. 9, make it mandatory for 13 major hospitals in the province to report each death at their facilities to the Trillium Gift of Life Network, which matches patients in need of transplants with donors.

When a patient dies in one of the hospitals, one of 20 Trillium organ donation co-ordinators is called. They then figure out the best way to approach the dead patient's relatives to get consent for organs.

Referrals to the network have tripled since early January, said Trillium president Dr. Frank Markel. And there has been a matching increase in donation rates.

There have been 17 organ donations in the 10 weeks since Jan. 9, compared with five in the same period last year. There were 146 donations of tissue, including skin, bone and heart valves, compared with 49 in the year-ago period, and referrals were up to 967 from 261.

Right now, organs are donated in just 1.5 per cent of the approximately 30,000 deaths recorded in Ontario hospitals each year.

• INDEPTH: Organ donations

• REALITY CHECK: Presumed consent

There are 1,866 patients, including 49 children, currently waiting for a transplant in Ontario. So far, 161 transplant operations have been performed in 2006.

Livers and kidneys are the most commonly needed organs.

The Ontario government plans to expand the mandatory reporting policy to all of its hospitals by next year.