Procedure to recommend a potential donor in palliative care

In your professional practice, you provide valuable care to people at the end of life, and you ensure that you provide ongoing support, either in a care facility or at home. Héma-Québec recognizes the invaluable work that you do on a daily basis and wants to make you aware of the importance that tissue donation could have for your patient and his/her family.

Although the subject of tissue donating is usually brought up with the grieving family after death, it sometimes happens that a patient will, during his/her lifetime, express the desire to donate his/her tissues. In all cases, the caregiver is encouraged to contact Héma-Québec, who will ensure that the information required by the situation is provided.

In order for a donation to be able to take place, the death must be confirmed, the potential donor must not have any exclusion criteria and must be between the ages of 0 and 85.

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 health care professional will be informed by phone of the presence or absence of consent, and instructions will be given by Héma-Québec’s coordinator for what follows.

Human tissue donation can take on special importance by providing families and loved ones with the opportunity to respect the donor’s wishes and contribute to his/her legacy after his/her death.

Identifying the potential donor and contacting Héma-Québec

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 palliative care donor referrals.

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