“New lungs for the unvaccinated.1 Reading this news surprised me a lot. Noting that the director of the lung transplant program at the Center hospitalier universitaire de Montréal (CHUM) is also their attending physician, one can easily see this as preferential treatment.
Posted yesterday at 11:00 a.m.
Transplant-Québec organizes, in April of each year, an awareness week to maximize the bank of potential donors. Quite simply because lungs, a heart, a liver… it’s not easy to find. It is by demystifying everything that surrounds the process of organ donation that we will have better receptivity.
On this occasion, the organization targets the importance for people who are in favor of discussing it with their loved ones as well as signing the consent sticker on the back of the health insurance card.
To have the privilege of a call from the transplant center advising you to come to the hospital because a healthy organ has just been found is simply winning the lottery of life.
My family doctor referred me to the CHUM when it became clear that I would need a new liver. Then begins the process to find out if my application can be sent to Transplant-Québec to be on the waiting list: interviews with a social worker, with a nurse, follow-up with a psychiatrist also offered if necessary. We even have the opportunity to meet a transplant recipient.
Like a job interview
It is similar to a committee for hiring a new candidate for a given job.
They want to know everything about me. Under what circumstances did the disease appear? Did I see my family doctor early? Did I follow his recommendations and proposed treatments? Do I have a healthy lifestyle?
Previous illnesses? Am I up to date on my vaccines? “Bring your vaccination record to the next appointment, please! “What are your hobbies?” » « Your projects for the next 10 years? » Etc. Added to all this is a battery of medical tests, some of which will be repeated at regular intervals to find out if my case is getting worse in order to become a priority for the transplant.
In short, my nurse summed up this process: “We want to know if it’s really worth giving you a second chance. Livers are rare and we want to make sure that you will take care of them every day by becoming a partner with our clinic. »
In terms of sport, I can say that I did very well score. The committee recommended me to Transplant-Québec.
I dare to believe that the CHUM’s lung transplant program committee had very heated discussions when evaluating the unvaccinated candidates.
Since the pandemic, an unvaccinated person may be suspected of being refractory to medical care in general. Possibly refractory to the sanitary measures dictated by Public Health (mask, hand washing, etc.).
Or a person who is afraid of needles. This is an argument that we hear very often. “It’s my body, it’s up to me to decide what medicine I will be given. ” To this, we must answer that the patient has no choice: “It is the transplant protocol that is done in this way. You board or it’s no, and we go to the next call. »
We’re told it doesn’t stop once the transplant is done. It is a lifelong collaboration that we must have with our transplant clinic. Immediately forget the fear of needles, regular blood tests, we have them. From scans with injection of tracers, and many other regular tests, specific to the organ received. Wearing a mask and Purell are now part of our lives. Not to mention the risk of infection which awaits us and which can turn into a hospital stay with intravenous treatments.
In closing, I have a thought for the three patients who unfortunately had to pass their turn when the committee decided to grant the precious gift of life to people who did not take their responsibilities to go vaccinate.
*André-Georges LeBlond is also a patient-partner at the National Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (INNESS), a partner of a foundation at the McGill University Health Center and an activist for organ donation awareness.