Northern, Indigenous communities need better access to organ transplants, say Sask. advocates – CBC
Feb 14, 2023
Advocates say northern Sask. residents also need access to procedures like dialysis while awaiting transplant
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.
