Coun. Chuck Puchmayr was part of a team that popped into to Royal Columbian Hospital to thank hospital staff for their efforts to support organ donation across B.C.
Operation Popcorn is B.C. Transplant’s annual program to deliver festive packages of popcorn to staff in intensive care units, emergency departments and operating rooms in nearly 30 hospitals around the province. Puchmayr was part of a team that visited Royal Columbian Hospital on Dec. 5 and Burnaby Hospital on Dec. 7.
“It was fantastic,” Puchmayr said. “As always, it is sometimes a pretty moving operation when you are talking to the nurses and the staff. They get emotional when you are telling your story.”
Puchmayr, who underwent a lifesaving liver transplant on Jan. 23, 2009, said transplant recipients are happy to visit the hospitals each December.
“We remind the emergency services and the hospital staff about the importance of organ donation,” he said. “We think it’s important they see the other end of it. When they are identifying people for donation or when they are in ICU helping people recover from transplants, they see the pretty traumatic side of that equation. What we like to do is go there and show them the successful end.”
