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February 13, 2007 The ‘Gift of Sight’ and the importance of tissue donation and transplantation from the New Brunswick Eye Bank The New Brunswick Eye Bank (NBEB), part of Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation and located in St. Joseph’s Hospital, consists of a team of professionals dedicated to restoring the “Gift of Sight” through the procurement of corneal tissue for transplantation. The NBEB fulfils this mission by offering families the opportunity to donate corneal and scleral tissue for transplantation. However, the NBEB is also committed to facilitating the procurement of other types of tissues; such as heart valves, bone and skin tissues and tendons that can be used to greatly improve quality of life for people in this province. Tissue donation and transplantation can be life saving or life enhancing. The availability of tissue for transplantation is critical to enable surgical specialties to address patient need. Ophthalmology, orthopedics, plastic surgery, neurosurgery and cardiac surgery programs rely on access to tissue for a variety of surgical procedures. Skin may save the life of a critically burned patient, heart valves may save the lives of individuals with congenital heart defects or needing valve replacements, corneas are used for vision restoration and tendons are used to repair damage as a result of motor vehicle collisions or sports injuries. Unfortunately, the demand for human tissue in Canada is five times greater than the supply and this need appears to be growing at an alarming rate. Ensuring families are provided the option of tissue donation is key. Every family has the right to make informed decisions about donation and in April 2005, with changes to the Human Tissue Act, mandatory referral is now required for all hospital deaths that occur in New Brunswick. The province recognizes that all families have the right to donate organs and tissues after death and by implementing this referral, all families have the opportunity to decide. The decision to donate is a very personal one and Gatien says “families should start dialogue now, so should the occasion arise, the family knows and understands the donors wishes.” Due in part to the improved opportunity for families to decide if donation is acceptable for them, Gatien indicates that the NBEB has more than doubled its number of donations over the past year. Gatien is passionate about the work she does with the Eye Bank. As Director of the Accredited Eye Bank she is oversees all aspects of the program and is also involved in many national committees. Gatien and the dedicated team at the Eye Bank do everything from educating the public, training health professionals, counseling donor families, screening, retrieving, testing and transporting corneas and tissues. “Hundred of corneas have been retrieved and it is my goal to keep the numbers growing,” said Gatien. “We retrieved approximately 312 corneas in the past year, resulting in about 160 transplants and we coordinated approximately 30 tissue donations resulting in hundreds of allograph tissue, yet the supply doesn’t meet the demand.” The NBEB has seen significant growth over the past several years. It now operates the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation Bone Bank where living donors give consent prior to hip surgery to donate the bone being removed, for transplantation. Portions of bone, that at one time would have been destroyed, can be donated for use in procedures such as total hip replacements, fracture repair, reconstruction of bone defects following cancer surgery or revision orthopedic prosthetic surgery. Bone can be used in 41 different types of grafts. The Corneal Retrieval Program at the NBEB continues to expand and collaborating with both the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s Newfoundland and the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. Currently, almost all transplants are performed in Halifax, however the coordination of cornea retrievals, donations and transplants and all other tissue transplants happens at the NBEB. Significant coordination and cooperation with the Regional Tissue Bank (RTB) in Nova Scotia allows for the success of the program. Attached is the story of one recipient who received the “gift of sight” - a corneal transplant. He stresses that “no one knows the importance of being a donor until your life is impacted by a strangers’ unselfish act.” Read the attached to learn about Bruce Horsman’s remarkable story.
AHSC Contact: Copyright © 2007 Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation. All rights reserved. |
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