After my visit with the doctor, I saw the registered nurse
who is the transplant co-ordinator. I
was able to ask a bunch of questions about this process. My first question was
how they were going to get my kidney from point A to point B, namely, from
Hamilton to Toronto.
I was surprised to find that the Ontario Provincial Police
provide this service. He said local police officers might take the kidney to
the highway, or pick it up from the highway and take it into the city, as the
OPP don’t have jurisdiction in the cities.
He said that if the traffic is
particularly heavy, or there are big accidents on the highway, they might even
take it via police boat to Toronto, and avoid the traffic entirely.
Well I’ve never ridden in a police car before so this will
be a first. At least part of me gets to
ride in a police car! I will have to
tell my husband to look out the window towards the end of my surgery and see if
he can see an OPP car having a box loaded into it!
This Paired Donor Exchange program is a national program,
run by Canadian Blood Services. I asked whether all the rest of the people in
the chain are at the Toronto General. The
co-ordinator didn’t give me much information, but he did say that they are not
all happening in Toronto. They could be
happening anywhere across the country.
He said that they like to have the donor and the recipient in the same
hospital, and the same doctor moves from one patient to the other, first taking
the kidney out and then putting it in.
The recipient usually has priority, and the donation is done at their
local location, so donors travel.
(Except in my case where my kidney is being transported to the recipient.)
He also told me that the person who receives my kidney will
not know that it is from an undesignated donor, although all the people in this
chain know that it is being made possible by an undesignated donor. They call it a domino donation, started by the
undesignated donor.
Oh, and did I mention that I had to fill out another nine
page questionnaire about my health! I
definitely could recite this in my sleep!