Achi news desk-
When 16-year-old Sandra LaRose decided she wanted her organs to be donated, she encouraged her mother and stepfather to do the same and put red and white stickers on their Saskatchewan health cards.
“I remember her saying, ‘Where are the organ donation stickers?’ ” LaRose said of Kailynn Bursic-Panchuk, who searched through the house in April 2018 to find the stickers.
The “jokester” who loved feeding the cows, goats and sheep on the family farm in Tyvan, Sask., about an hour east of Regina, died in a pediatric intensive care unit about three months later, a day after her 17th birthday.
Kailynn had recently learned to drive and was distracted by her phone when her car was hit by a train, LaRose said.
Her heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas and lungs were harvested so that other lives could be saved.
Kailynn’s decision made the organ donation process easier for the family and the hospital staff, LaRose said
She said Kailynn was inspired to donate by Humboldt Broncos defenseman Logan Boulet, who was among 16 people killed when a truck hit his junior hockey team’s bus on a highway north of Tisdale, Sask. Because of his decision to donate five weeks earlier, six of Boulet’s organs were donated when he died in hospital the next day – April 7, 2018.
Since 2019, that date has become known nationally as Green Shirt Day to support organ donor registration. Led by Boulet’s parents and the Canadian Transplant Society, the campaign encourages registrants to discuss their decision with the family.
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A star shaped logo can be seen on this year Day Shirt Green Shirt and T shirt designed by an indigenous artist from the Blood Tribe in southern Alberta.
Fans are encouraged to wear green in the run-up to Sunday, when landmarks will be lit green in many communities hosting skating and hockey events as well as other gatherings. The southern Alberta chapter of the Canadian Kidney Foundation has planned a march in Calgary.
Kathleen Fleming, director of the British Columbia branch of the Canadian Transplant Society, said more schools participated in Green Shirt Day activities this year, with some students creating art projects as they learned about organ donation.
A book called “The Ant Who Needed a Transplant,” written by a former transplant surgeon, read to elementary school students this week in Maple Ridge, B.C., and a heart recipient spoke to middle school kids in Kitimat, Fleming said.
“Children are incredibly pragmatic,” he said of the young people’s response to the book about Baby’s Aunt, who needs a new heart because she can no longer climb up a hill. “They were very interested in the process.”
The association is trying to get more schools to introduce age-appropriate resources in elementary and high schools, said Fleming, whose brother and niece have received double lung transplants. Another niece received a kidney.
Logan Boulet’s mother, Bernadine Boulet, a Grade 2 teacher in Lethbridge, Alta., said her school held an assembly on the first Green Shirt Day, when the topic of organ donation was “suggested” around.
But even primary students have since normalized it, as have most people, he said.
Boulet has introduced students to the Mighty Orgamites, animated characters in the form of eight major organs and tissues that can be donated. They were first used as a resource by teachers in Britain and have been increasingly incorporated into teaching materials in Canada, along with Canadian accents, he said.
On Thursday, Grade 1 and 2 students at her school will present a play about a boy who needs a heart transplant, Boulet said.
“It starts with the children playing in the playground and the little boy is coughing and having trouble breathing. Then they go to the doctor, who says: ‘We need to put him on the transplant list.’ “
On the night of the bus crash, Boulet said doctors at a Saskatoon hospital told her and her husband Toby Boulet that their son would not survive a brain stem injury.
“My first thought was, ‘He’s young, he’s healthy, he’s fit. He has organs that one could benefit from and have a better life. So I asked if Logan could be an organ donor, if that was a possibility. They were shocked because that, as we have learned, rarely happens,” said Bernadine Boulet, her voice breaking.
She did not know until then, eight months earlier, that her son had told his father during a passing conversation that he wanted to donate. his organs. He was inspired after his fitness trainer’s family donated his organs, saving six lives.
The young Boulet was adamant about registering as an organ donor on March 2, his 21st birthday, Toby Boulet said.
The couple have received letters through the Saskatchewan Transplant Society from two anonymous people who received their son’s heart and kidney.
All they know is that the recipient of the heart is a single parent who lives outside their state, Bernadine Boulet said.
“We don’t know if it is the mother or the father but it has enabled that person to be healthy enough to be able to do things and to look after his family.”
Residents from all states can now register online to become organ donors through their transplant society. Nova Scotians are automatically considered potential organ donors, unless they opt out. Families are still consulted about the wishes of their loved ones.
