“You know that with each transport you do, you save a life. Or more “. This explains why more than 160 officers from the Service de police de la ville de Montréal (SPVM) have volunteered, in their spare time, to transport organs as quickly as possible to the patients for whom they are intended, explains Lieutenant Jean Girard, volunteer coordinator for the Canadian Association for Organ and Tissue Donations (ACDO).
The police, “we are the link”, between the one who gives a heart, a liver, or a lung and the one who will receive it after a transplant, illustrates the lieutenant of the SPVM, attached to the neighborhood station 44.
In this week of organ donation, it highlights the little-known role of the police in all the mechanics of the transplant, carried by a chain of humans who are busy saving lives: Transplant Québec, which identifies potential donors and reserves operating rooms, the medical teams who harvest and transplant the organs, and the police who transport them to their destination.
The next police car you see passing, sirens on and flashing lights, may not be on its way to a crime scene. She may be carrying valuable cargo in a cooler, securely fastened with a seatbelt. “Because organs shouldn’t be stirred! »
More than 500 transports are thus carried out annually by the members of 12 police forces in Quebec: alone, the SPVM police officers carry out between 200 and 300 to a hospital where the future transplant patient is waiting impatiently – sometimes, they are a few days away. of death, emphasizes Lieutenant Girard – or even to the airport.
The Canadian Association for Organ and Tissue Donations (CODA) provided a vehicle for each participating police force. His association with the police came naturally, says the SPVM lieutenant, because “we are trained to drive in an emergency, in a safe manner. »
Gone are the days of transport by ambulance or taxi. The former are too few in number — especially in the regions — and it is preferable to let them take care of the wounded. As for taxis, they were not always reliable and cannot drive in an emergency, he explains. Police vehicles know how to weave their way through Montreal traffic.
Once the organ is removed, the hours are counted before it deteriorates. “The faster we transport it, the more likely it is that the transplant will work. It’s worth gold for doctors,” comments Mr. Girard.
Organ transport has been done by police since 1987 and the SPVM has raised its hand every year since 1995.
When its services are required by Transplant Québec — which coordinates this step and many others — the SPVM sends a text message to all its volunteer police officers, giving priority to those who are not on duty. First come, first chosen: it only takes 3-4 minutes for an agent to apply and be selected.
For them, it is rewarding, says the coordinating police officer. Police officers are committed to helping others and protecting human life. With this voluntary work, “we save lives every time. It has a very positive end.”
When the organ is finally at its destination, the patient’s loved ones “see life coming,” he says.
He remembers this lady he met and who spoke to him with emotion about his lung transplant at the Sacré-Coeur Hospital. She told him the date of the surgery, which she calls “her second date of birth”, recalls the policeman. It then had “a click”. He remembers carrying a lung on that date, which is also his own birthday. After hesitating, he revealed his role to her. The woman hugged him for a long time.
He pauses as he recounts the moment. Tears well up in his eyes.
He himself made a hundred transports in his career. Organ donation, “it allows us to restore life. He says he is happy with the small role he has been able to play in the lives of all these people.
However, the lieutenant deplores the low number of organ donations. Last year, in Quebec, 483 people were transplanted, but 913 people were still waiting as of December 31, according to figures from Transplant Quebec. And some organs are rarer than others.
A donor can save up to eight lives, and improve those of 20 people, indicates the organization responsible for transplants in Quebec.
Lieutenant Girard encourages people to put the organ donation sticker on their health insurance card and sign it, and to register in the register of consents of the Régie d’assurance- maladie du Québec. But he reminds us not to forget to advise our loved ones of our wishes, because the family can always override the consent of the deceased, he recalls.
SPVM officers are also involved in demystifying organ donation and paying tribute to donors and their families. Because sometimes, he points out, organ donation “gives meaning” to the end of a life.