Patients still waiting for answers on organ donation program resumption

REGINA - Today, Official Opposition Leader Ryan Meili was joined by Eden Janzen, a Saskatchewan patient currently on dialysis and waiting for both surgery and a kidney transplant to call on the Sask. Party government to urgently resume the organ donation system and use whatever resources necessary to expediently reduce the waitlist.

“Actions speak louder than words. This needs to be one of this government’s top priorities to urgently resume services and invest more resources to tackle this backlog of their own making,” said Meili. “It’s not fair to patients like Eden, or Jessica Bailey, to have been denied access to this lifesaving program. They deserve so much better from their government.”

Eden Janzen is 25 years old on dialysis and waiting for a kidney transplant. She has been waiting for a kidney for four years and thought that 2021 would be her year – until the organ transplant program was taken offline. Eden’s story is the same as many Saskatchewan patients currently waiting for essential health services to resume. The pause to the program has also been a missed opportunity to meet critical windows for donors. Recently, a Saskatchewan geriatric physician shared the story of a young patient who unfortunately passed away and was not able to fulfil his last wish to donate his organs

“I’ve done my part. I’ve had my three Pfizer shots. Two needles is all it takes to save plenty more lives than just COVID patients,” said Janzen. “There’s been over thirteen dialysis patients that have died in the last year with the current delays due to the pressures on our health care system. These people are like family to me. It’s not fair that we are suffering the consequences for decisions made that were completely out of our control.”

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For more information please contact:

Brock Bowman

306-519-9549

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