Procedure to recommend a potential donor in hospital

In the course of your practice, you may encounter situations involving sudden death. When a person dies in hospital, you must determine whether he or she is a potential donor. To do so, the person must have been dead for less than 24 hours and have no exclusion criteria.

At the time of an in-hospital death, in order for human tissue donating to be able to take place, the death must be confirmed, i.e., that cardiopulmonary arrest, without life support, is observed.

When faced with a sudden death, we encourage you to bring up the subject of tissue donation very tactfully and with deep respect for the deceased’s loved ones, taking their emotional state into account.

Once the discussion is initiated, your role is to:

• demonstrate the potential benefits of donating;  
• explain the donation process in detail to the family and loved ones;  
• refer the potential donor to Héma-Québec.  

Human tissue donations can be made up until the day of the 86th birthday. In all cases, a medical assessment is conducted by Héma-Québec to validate potential donors’ eligibility. Based on the person’s age, the following human tissues can be collected:

• Cardiovascular tissues: from birth until age 60;  
• Skin and musculoskeletal tissues: age 15 to 70;  
• Eye tissues: age 2 to 85, inclusive.  

Héma-Québec will do the usual checks in the consent registries of the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) and the Chambre des notaires du Québec (CNQ). After both registries have been checked, the hospital staff will be informed by phone of the presence or absence of consent or refusal.

When consent is entered into the registry or if the family has given their approval to the health care professional to be contacted about tissue donating, Héma-Québec will handle the process, including recording telephone consent with the family and qualifying the donor, if applicable.

Referring a potential donor

A telephone line available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week allows people to refer a donor at any time. Just call 1-888-366-7338 option 2, or 1 888 DONS DE VIE option 2. See the procedure for donor identification and referral in-hospital.

The following tools, designed by Héma-Québec, can help you support patients as well as their families and loved ones in deciding whether to consent to donating human tissues.