Trillium Gift of Life

Did you know, every three days, someone in Ontario dies while waiting for an organ transplant?

Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) has partnered with Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN) to maximize tissue and organ donation to enhance life for others. We are the twelfth hospital TGLN has collaborated with to promote tissue and organ donation. Through this collaboration, CKHA continues its change and quality initiatives to improve health and quality of life for all.

Organ donation from one individual can help eight other individuals. Tissue donation can benefit the lives of 75 others. Unfortunately, the availability of organs and tissue in Ontario for transplant falls extremely short of the need.

After January 24, 2012, CKHA’s Emergency Department (ED) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) will implement this quality initiative and report all deaths to TGLN within one hour of a patient’s death. This timely, mandatory reporting will facilitate tissue donation, specifically the donation of eye tissues, skin, bone, and heart valves by standardizing the process for donation with one phone call to TGLN. This process also helps identify potential donors.

Discussing death or tissue/organ donation with family or loved ones is never an easy topic.

Have you considered tissue/organ donation? Did you know that even if you signed a donor card, you still need to register your request on-line with Service Ontario? If you do register yourself as a tissue/organ donor, you can alleviate a stressful burden on your family of having to decide what to do during a painful, sad time.

Through this collaboration, TGLN has the ability to verify “donor status” for those whom the status is not known or whose status may have changed. TGLN staff will discuss tissue and organ donation with family members, prompting them to consider donation for those who are not registered or verification of donor status to ensure the patient’s wishes are followed.


For more information or to register on-line, visit http://www.ontario.ca/en/services_for_residents/ONT05_039074.html

Everyone is a potential donor regardless of their age.