Northern, Indigenous communities need better access to organ transplants, say Sask. advocates
CBC
Celia Deschambeault is speaking out about the lack of access to transplant services in the province's north after seeing what it took for her uncle to access dialysis procedures outside his community, and then donating a kidney to him in 2011.
Deschambeault said her uncle had to leave Cumberland House Cree Nation about three times a week for dialysis, and would have to clear an entire day's schedule for the procedure and accompanying trip.
She said people in his position often have to travel to Tisdale, Melfort or Saskatoon. Tisdale is the closest at about 170 kilometres from the First Nation community.
Her uncle had been on dialysis for five years when Deschambeault began getting tested in January 2011 to learn if she was a match for him.
"It was a really draining process for him," Deschambeault told Garth Materie, host of CBC's Blue Sky.
LISTEN | Live organ donors talk with CBC Blue Sky's Garth Materie about why donations are difficult but important:
She said there needs to be better access for people in the north, including having at-home dialysis machines. Since 2011, she says the community services haven't changed.
"Other than transportation … there was no support here in the community," she said.
"We don't have the services to support the things that they need."
She believes there needs to be more education around transplants and the importance of them, and financial support for those looking to donate.
After she donated her kidney on Nov. 23, 2011, she said there was also a lack of aftercare services, or people checking in to see how she was managing after the operation.
"Being in the north, sometimes we're not as heard as we'd like to be heard," Deschambeault said.
In 2021, four of the 27 adult kidney donations were from live donors, or about 15 per cent, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Deschambeault's daughter also has a condition that means she may need a kidney transplant in the future, she said.
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