Kidney transplants to resume in Sask.
It has taken more than a year, but kidney transplants will again be done in Saskatchewan, the provincial government says.
On Friday, Health Minister Don McMorris announced the partial resumption of Saskatchewan’s kidney transplant program.
It’s partial because only kidneys from living donors will be used, not those from deceased donors.
The Saskatoon-based transplant program was suspended in July 2009 because of a shortage of specialists.
Vascular surgeons stopped doing the procedure after a key member of the team stepped down for health reasons. The program remained in limbo when negotiations between the surgeons and the government over pay and workload became deadlocked.
Health officials eventually decided that bringing back the full program was not immediately possible, but the living-donor part could be restored.
McMorris stated the province needs more surgeons for a full transplant program.
Specialists needed
“We need to recruit a couple of transplant specialists,” McMorris said. “Once that is done … we will hopefully be resuming the cadaveric portion of the program so both portions can be done here in Saskatchewan.”
Since the suspension of the program last year, some patients have received transplants in Edmonton. Transplants in Saskatchewan will begin up again later this month.
The lack of a provincial kidney transplant program has turned into a political football, with one kidney patient appearing at the Saskatchewan legislature to have blood dialysis and make a point that something had to be done.
Some kidney patients and family members the CBC spoke to Friday stated they were glad the province has finally moved, but others asked what took so long.
Sandi Poochay’s husband, Dion, has been waiting for his transplant since the program was halted. He is now scheduled to get a kidney from his brother on Sept. 16.
“If things would have been done sooner, things would not have got this bad. I would not have to fight for my husband’s life for them to just do a transplant,” she said.
In 2009, 22 Saskatchewan patients received kidney transplants, including 19 from deceased donors and three from living donors.
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Submited at Saturday, September 4th, 2010 at 9:00 am on Health by chuck
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