Two viable lungs were discarded and Vancouver Island man returned home
Don Chamberlain went from sudden elation to crushing disbelief on Feb. 7, when his double lung transplant was cancelled at the last minute because of a staffing shortage.
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Vancouver General Hospital staff had to dispose the viable organ.
“I was put on the wait list on Dec. 23, 2024, and knowing how many people are waiting, I didn’t expect a call right away,” said Chamberlain, who lives in Courtenay.
“My blood type and lung size apparently increase my ability to match more donors than others with more rare circumstances.
“I’m a calm person by nature, and I knew there was a chance of a ‘dry run’, but the unfortunate event of a lung being discarded due to staff shortages stirred more than a little outrage in me and a desire to understand how such a thing can happen.”
Chamberlain is 59. It was 10 a.m. on a Friday morning when he got the call to get to Vancouver General Hospital as quickly as possible, only to return that evening “shocked and dumbfounded”.
The length of time between organ retrieval (termed “cold ischemic” time) and viable transplant varies depending on the organ, a spokesperson for B.C. Transplant said.
For lungs (and heart), that time is about four to six hours. Livers and kidneys remain viable outside a body for longer.
Chamberlain has lived a healthy outdoor lifestyle and never smoked in his life.
“It could be from keeping backyard chickens,” Chamberlain said.
He is on leave from his job at Fisheries and Oceans Canada and is on oxygen, which prevents him from speaking for more than a few minutes at a time.
He prays no one else ever has to go through the emotional wringer he has.
“I am very interested in bringing attention to the causes of this situation, in hopes that changes can be made.
“My hope is that light can shine on this tragedy, so it doesn’t get repeated.”
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), which cited a combination of high patient volume and a province-wide problem attracting staff, is conducting an internal investigation.
“VCH can also confirm that, unfortunately, perfusionist staffing challenges at (Vancouver General Hospital) led to the postponement of a lung transplant procedure earlier this month and the loss of the donated organs,” a spokesman said in an emailed answer to submitted questions.
“At the time, there were multiple competing emergent-patient demands placed on the perfusionist team and, as a result, they did not have the added capacity to support the transplant procedure.
“This is the first time since starting the lung transplant program in 2002 that VGH has had to cancel a procedure due to perfusionist staffing challenges.”
B.C. has been having trouble retaining perfusionists since demand for them spiked during COVID.
Chamberlain’s MLA, Brennan Day, brought the situation up during Question Period in Victoria last week.
His research shows that almost 40 per cent of current perfusionists under the age of 40 plan on leaving the field within five years because of staff-related stress.
“It’s because (the government) has not found a way to compensate perfusionists accordingly,” Day said.
Since he brought it up in Question Period, Day said he has had 40 emails from transplant surgeons and perfusionists “saying it’s about time somebody talked about this because this has been a problem for years now that has been completely unaddressed.”
Postmedia asked the provincial ministry of health how many perfusionist positions there are in B.C. and if any remain unfilled, but did not receive a reply by publication.
Health Minister Josie Osborne said on Monday that she can only imagine what Chamberlain has been through.
“It just speaks to the urgency of the work that we are doing to attract specialists, to build a cadre of heath-care workers across the entire system to ensure that people get the health care they need, when and where they live,” Osborne said.
“This is a specific specialty of a support that is needed for this type of transplant surgery, and we are working across all specialties to ensure that we have the right numbers of people in ratio, so that we can ensure that these lifesaving surgeries can take place.”
Lost in all this is the family of the deceased donor, said Chamberlain, a long-time donor volunteer himself.
“There’s another side to this tragedy. They must be feeling pretty bad, and I feel very sorry for them.
“Imagine what that family feels, what they are going through, thinking they might get some kind of closure for their loved one, and then to see (the lungs disposed of). That would leave quite a scar.”
— with file from Alec Lazenby