Posted yesterday at 4:00 p.m.
Is it possible to donate our organs when we die despite advanced age? I would be happy to know that my kidneys, liver and other organs could be used to give someone a second life.
Gertrude Samuel
Your question is very relevant, because it is indeed a little-known aspect of organ donation. The answer is: yes, organs can be harvested and used despite advanced age.
And this answer is not only theoretical. It is verified in practice.
The general manager of Transplant Québec, Louis Beaulieu, cites two cases that strike the imagination.
“Our oldest donor was 92 years old. He donated his liver and it still works, for 17 years,” he explains. It is a young woman who received the liver. “She was not yet a mother at the time. She has since had three daughters and everyone is doing very well. »
The other case mentioned by Louis Beaulieu is that of a 76-year-old donor. “He saved five lives! His lungs, kidneys, heart and liver were transplanted. It is simply remarkable. And it shows that it is not because we reach a certain age that our organs can no longer serve others.
Note that this is not necessarily common. “We agree that the older I get, the more my organs are likely to fail,” says Louis Beaulieu. But that means that it would be wrong to give up on the idea of organ donation if you have reached a venerable age.
Allow us to remind you that Quebec is still lagging behind when it comes to organ donations. The situation was already not rosy, but it deteriorated with the pandemic.
“Between 2020 and 2021, we observed an increase of more than 10% in the waiting list,” reports the general manager of Transplant Québec.
If the pace of transplants has accelerated slightly since the start of 2022, the fact remains that nearly 880 people are still waiting as we speak. This is still too high a figure and these patients are still waiting too long.
Quebec is therefore ripe for a societal discussion around organ donation, according to Transplant Quebec. “We are referring to something that could resemble the consultation that was done around medical assistance in dying,” says Louis Beaulieu. A public discussion where we could in particular decide on the controversial question of consent, which has been debated for some time now.
It should be noted that a door was recently opened on this subject by the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, when he presented his plan for the “refoundation” of the health system.
The government “intends to revise the legislative framework, improve performance in hospitals and in the system in general and simplify the expression of consent to organ donation and transplantation”, it was announced at the time.