Chuck Puchmayr let a small gift say a lot of big thank yous on behalf of organ transplant patients across B.C.
The New Westminster city councillor was on hand with other transplant recipients on Monday to deliver cans of popcorn at Royal Columbian Hospital as tokens of appreciation for health-care professionals during Operation Popcorn.
“The tins of popcorn are a small gift and a gigantic ‘thank you’ on behalf of all transplant recipients in our province,” said Puchmayr.
Puchmayr’s is one of 28 teams visiting hospitals across B.C. to say thank you to the nurses, doctors and other health-care professionals who make organ donations happen.
Similar visits will take place this week in hospitals from New Westminster and Burnaby to Prince George and Trail. This is the 22nd annual operation to say thanks for the gift of life.
The event is a thank you to all the health-care workers who not only perform transplant operations but also deal with the grief and stress associated with the organ donor process.
A visit from the Operation Popcorn team allows the staff to see the people whose lives are saved through organ donation.
“It’s important that the key trauma departments, emergency and intensive care units at major hospitals get to meet survivors of organ transplants as living proof that the work our medical teams do to identify and facilitate potential organ donation is positive,” said Puchmayr.
Puchmayr received a life-saving liver transplant operation in early 2009 after having been diagnosed with liver cancer. He’s one of 3,547 recipients currently living in B.C.
As of Nov. 30, B.C. hospitals had performed 314 organ transplant operations in 2013. The total to that date in 2012 was 284.
There are 507 people on the wait-list for a transplant – 383 of those are waiting for a kidney transplant. The average wait time for a kidney transplant is 43.65 months – nearly four years.
As Puchmayr notes, it takes less than two minutes to register as an organ donor.
While 85 per cent of British Columbians support the idea of donating organs for transplant, only 19 per cent have registered as donors.
