Hi, this is David Foster. My foundation works to provide financial assistance for all non-medical expenses to families of children going through the life-saving organ transplant process in Canada. I encourage each and every one of you to give the gift of life and register today. Also, listen to the Gifted Life Podcast.
Learn more and register today. One day the life that is saved could be your own. Hello and welcome to the Gifted Life Podcast where we have conversations about organ, tissue and eye donation. I'm your host, Jalan Caraway.
Jalan Caraway. What happened to Laurie Steele? Well, Laurie is out on location and she is helping us tell more stories about organ tissue and eye donation. And so you guys stuck with me, Joey.
That's all right. You guys stuck with me, unfortunately. And I'm usually behind the scenes, you guys out there that listen to our podcast, heard me a couple of episodes ago and here I am. Well, in this episode, we're going to be completely Canadian focused on transplanting.
And in our first segment, we're going to have one of the utmost experts in transplantation from Canada. Absolutely. And then we find out how one music producer, very famous music producer, is making differences for families in Canada. And as we do in every episode, we're going to honor a hero.
And we answer a listener's question about international donation. So we have an awesome episode right here and we hope that you share that you'll do something to help us spread the word about this podcast. And we're easy to find. Of course, as always, you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, PocketCast, or whatever your favorite podcast apps may be.
Absolutely. And if you're into social media, we're on social media, donate like Louisiana. You can like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram at donatelifeLA. And also you can give us a call.
Our number is 504648347. That's 504648. 3477. I'm not sure I hit that one as good as Sally does, but I gave it a whirl.
I think you were on fire. That was a great job, Joey. We have a great show ahead. International flair.
A lot of good guests. Here we go. Canada, our United States neighbor to the north, has an estimated population of over 35 million people. Manitoba is one of Canada's centrally located provinces.
And today we're talking to Dr. Siddiqui with Transplant Manitoba Gift of Life to learn more about how Oregon, Tissue, and eye donation and transplantation is saving lives in Canada. Today's episode, Shalom. We have Dr.
Faisal Siddiqui, who's a donor physician there in Manitoba. Welcome aboard Dr. Siddiqui. Joey and Shalom.
Thank you for coming on. What exactly is the role of a donor physician? So in Canada, there's been a whose job is really not worrying about gifts, whatever it is, but rather making sure that people who want to give this amazing gift of life, we maximize the opportunities for them to actually donate as many organs as possible. We are reaching that point where they can donate, whether it's through your traumatic brain injury, or they may be able to donate.
Most people are giving this amazing want to donate, that we ensure that there's many that they have that can donate as healthy as possible. But other on those amazing gifts and maximizing the potential of those people who want to give that amazing gift, and talking to you and your friends and things, if you want to donate, which for your gift, sharing the people who have that wish to donate, we manage their physiology to make sure that their organs are healthy and able to be donated at the end of your life. So it sounds like a lot of your role is more in the critical care setting and family support, rather than from a transplant, typical transplant surgeon setting or even recovery surgeon setting, right? That is exactly right.
Through that, we have a lot of experience with end of life care. We also have a lot of experience with life support measures and measures to improve organ function. So because of that, when we know someone wants to donate, we make sure that we do our better. And so Dr.
Sadiqi, can you give us some basics that how many people are waiting on a life-saving transplant in Canada and how many lives are saved on average each year? Sure. So we have a lot of data for and there's about 650 deceased organ donors and 563 in Canada. There's 100 Canadians waiting for almost 20 more than half of those were actually kidney transplants.
You mentioned the number of donors both on the deceased side and the living donor side. It's much closer than we see here in the United States. The vast majority of our donors come from LOPA and from the deceased side, whereas it's not quite as many on the living side. What would you say the big contrast, the big difference that causes you guys to have basically the same amount on both sides?
Many of them are in family, in the name and I match and we kind of went through the family and this, you know, I'm the one who matches so I'm going to donate my kid. We also have people who are just altruistic and out that they say I'd like to just donate an organ. And these are people who want to donate kidney. The reason why we have a lot of families with, you know, these and families to try and get their family member better and help.
I'm interested to dive into a few areas that I really didn't, I'll be honest, I've been doing this for 15 years and kind of in my bubble for the most part within LOPA and then of course I go to national conferences and such to learn a little bit more about our colleagues in the other states. But I'm interested to find out more about you guys processes. Like say, for instance, first person authorization here, the uniform anatomical gift act is a statute. It's a law that states that you have the right to self-determination and that right supersedes anyone else's rights on what happens with you.
You guys don't necessarily follow that but from what I understand pretty much the majority of the families agree. So can you tell me how you guys view first person authorization there? So I know the uniform nationally, we have a process that's there either through the little cards, some people head back to the driver's life, North American procedures of jurisdictions have involved in registries where we collect intent to donate based on your name, their loved one. So predetermined wish with loved one usually leads to 95% in cases.
This idea of like, oh yeah, now we know what they want, we're just going to make sure that we- And so I had noticed that there is that push for conversations and we do that here in the United States just because it is so important for families to have that discussion for you to know your loved ones wishes and them to know yours. So another thing that we encounter in the US and I'm interested to find out if you guys encounter is we have these myths that we're constantly going up against and one of the biggest ones is that if I'm a registered organ donor and the physicians know that they're not going to do everything to save my life. Do you guys encounter that myth in your communities? Yeah.
So I agree, I mean we're neighbors, we, you know, Canada the United States, we're about that dissimilar in terms of our populations and I think the same stories propagate through the same population. I can tell you that we do like having that discussion and we encourage people to share their intent to donate in whatever way they like, you know, whether it's going online with their provincial registries or having friends over dinner, they want to do when healthy one. I'm going to be a donor, he's not going to try that hard. Everyone from a while I hear people and they come up and talk to me about that and every time I tell them, like that's the reason why our donor doctors are separate from the treating team that they carry out any bird regarding the, you know, friends they separate from the recipient program because I don't want anyone to say that the doc, you know, knows a guy who needs to get me so we're going to take line.
So by keeping those, these are those lines separate. See some of those fears and people, I think just they need to have that, that's their fear. We got to talk to them and show them and like we thought about that and we definitely don't want anyone to feel that way. So that's one of the things that we do locally in that problem.
So here we have UNOS, United Network of Argan Sharing, and they kind of have multiple roles. Of course, we're all members, each organ recovery agency or OPO is a member of UNOS, but they also house the list, you know, so the national list is housed with UNOS in what's called donor net. And of course, we've got quite a bit of national policies that help us to guide where the organs are allocated to the sickest patients best match, you know, oftentimes it being close to us. So for instance, with a liver here in the United States, it's allocated oftentimes by what's called a male score, but what it is, it's kind of a score given to tell you how sick you are.
So the sickest person within the state and then a region and then it goes nationally. So how is it different with you guys as far as I understand, you don't really have a UNOS or one United body overseeing a direct presentation and transfusion of Canadian blood services. And they are an arm or a division of health care, government agency that helps outline transplantation across the system that you guys have and instead we have regions exist in that province and 0.3 million people and it covers a massive geographical state, probably the size of Texas through and they are a potential kidney donor. The first thing that we'll do is our focus locally will do all the work up to ensure that we've identified the right HLA match measures size, check for a function.
If any recipient locally provincial bodies and literally they just go next door to the next province, they we have a live like this size. These are the parameters that we've tested. You have anyone on your list who would match. If they have a recipient that could match then for the procurement of organs, if they don't then we ask the next province over and we kind of at the same time and we're coordinating two or three teams coming in from various parts of the country for procurement with recipients waiting at those other institutions for those organs once they've kind of left our center.
And so that's how the distribution happens. I think it's a scale issue with the population in the United States. You have a tenfold call to neighboring state now. Due to our size we have a desire to get a little bit more of a national setting and so we have for highly sensitized recipient developed antibodies to certain biomarkers.
They will actually go on a live high-centrised patient. An organ that is required by highly sensitive patient, they actually jump to the top of a cutely ill patient who would benefit from a transplant. A lot of centers will just call the donor centers and say we have a really high stack. That's quite fascinating.
I've been fortunate enough to go to quite a few national conferences and be able to share our processes with other organ recovery agencies and then share theirs with us. But it's so amazing the differences with you guys especially like you said with the geographical differences with the sheer number population differences that you guys can be more personal with your approach. And I certainly thank you, Doc, for coming on and sharing with us. Sure we actually thank you Dr.
Sittiki and people in Canada we hope they listen to the gift of life podcast. Where can they go to register to learn more about your process and what it means to be registered and where can they gain that information? So people in general population are people with an interest to gain information about not just our program but also kind of the national pro has a gift of life, SPL, ANT and then Manitoba, M-A-N-I-T-O-B-A, dot things, all the major pro and chilc are web taking things a lot of what we do locally in terms of don't sit in how we honor the people's amazing gift of life. It's the benefit of organization that they can have that conversation with their family and friends.
Well thank you, Dr. Sittiki. We are so excited that you were able to join us and tell us more about Transplant Manitoba and how organ tissue and eye donation works in Canada. If you are a listener and you have some more questions info at lopa.org.
So for 30 years, the David Foster Foundation has worked to provide financial support for non-medical expenses to Canadian families with children in need of life-saving organ transplants. The David Foster Foundation has assisted over a thousand families with children in need of a transplant and provided much needed dollars in direct family support. So today we have with us Mike Ravenhill, CEO of the David Foster Foundation. Mike, welcome.
Thank you so much for having me. So can you tell us about the David Foster Foundation? Well the David Foster Foundation started in 1986 30 years ago basically and it was because David's a call from his mother. David was in LA, UCLA with a needing major organ transplant from Canada.
And so David said, would you just go see this little girl and not as a celebrity book. This is a hometown boy because David was from the same hometown as a little girl. But little did he know that would change his life forever. So they were under and then David spoke to leave and he asked us, is there anything that I can do for you?
Stop. And David thought that, or I want to go to Disneyland. But that wasn't the case. The little girl that David created me, I just want to see my sister.
And David's husband, he realized that the family did not have enough money to fly their sister down and she hadn't seen her sister in over three months. So David said, I'm going to make that happen. And so he came back to Canada and arranged flights and brought the family down. Both eyes met.
It had to be my foundation. And this is what I'm going to do. And I'm going to provide financial assistance to children that require major organ transplants for all non-medical expenses. No child, no family should ever be split up situation like this.
And so that's what he did. And over a thousand families later, millions of dollars raised and thousands of lives that have been affected by one man's choice to be different. Mike, to be honest, me being a small town, southern Louisiana boy who doesn't have a whole lot of outside knowledge outside of what I see in front of me. So can you tell me a little bit about David the superstar?
Well, he truly is. I'm in my 50s. And so people of my age would say, soundtrack of our lives. I'm John S.
Rogen, Michael Googley, Bruce Andre, but Kelly, you know what goes on, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Bodyguard, Madonna, you know, Rod Stewart, TV Wonder, Rick Winne, Firereck, as a wannabe, Natalie Cole, and Unforgettable, you know, Shop at County, Rogers, Delly Parton, you know, Chicago, and so forth. He is a man that had a gift like I've never seen before. And he is respected in the industry as one of the greatest producers of all time, he's a producer. He knows how to find the talent, but he also knows how to bring the best.
And his saying is, good is the enemy of great. And so he will find greatness. And he really does. And he's in addition when it comes to that.
So probably would go through. That's who he is. He's an amazing man. And he's wonderful at heart.
He's been with him for over 20 years. And, you know, I would like to say, I just didn't hold on tight. So I know amazing, oftentimes, just throwing around with this guy is almost beyond that. I don't think you named an artist that I didn't love.
Right. When you talk in the bodyguard, I mean, that's one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. So given that away. Yeah.
Well, you know, he's a team time Grammy award, winner, 50 nomination. So he's been up to bat a few times, but you know, 16, that's not that bad. So with all that, with all that he has on his plate and has had on his plate, he found time to start a foundation just based on one girl's wish. And look how much this is taking off, right, Mike?
It's amazing. Yeah, it started as a small up in Canada. We have products versus British Columbia with the product started in the foundation in over 30 years. It's grown to be a national foundation, helping families from coast to coast.
And really making an impact on families lives that otherwise would be shattered up here in Canada. The percentages are incredible. 80% of families will end in bankruptcy or divorce if we don't help the family. And that in itself is shocking to the system.
And you know, when somebody can make a difference and change that, you know, that's what David did. And, you know, at the end of the day, David says, I don't get to be my legacy. I want my foundation to be my legacy. And it truly is.
It's been this for 30 years and continues to do that. Where do you see David Foster Foundation heading? Mm. That's a great question.
You know, we constantly are asking that question on board. We sit down and we discuss, you know, what can we do? How can we make a difference? And really, it comes down to where can we make the biggest impact and the biggest?
How can we save more lives? How can we educate more people? And how can we make sure that what we are doing is truly making a difference. Right now we have a goal at 30 by 30, meaning 30 million dollars by our 30th anniversary.
And we're pretty much on target for that. That'll be this year. And then we look to increasing the organ donor awareness and education, bringing it into the school and bringing it into corporate challenges. You know, we have a program up in and in the Canv when the time comes that you can lead that like legacy.
If you haven't let your family know of your wishes, the family actually can veto your wish and therefore your organs are not given to save the life or improve the life. And that's, you know, that's really a bad thing. So we always say, please educate your family, let them know about your wishes and make sure that you tell your family. Right, Mike.
And that's something that Dr. Sadiqi and I had spoken about earlier. It is one of the differences here in the United States where first person authorization supersedes the family's wishes. But it's still at the same time, we feel it's still just as valuable and important to make sure you have that conversation with your family.
If someone was to want to apply for the foundation or to the foundation, how would they go about doing that? Another great question. Transplant team. So a family can't directly call our foundation and ask for financial assistance.
It actually must come through the transplant teams because they're the professional. They know the family situation. And when the child comes to that process and gets worked up for, they're the whole transplant team that comes around and the social workers and they assess their needs from there. Say we have a need, we have a family, here's what we're looking for, here's how much money and so forth.
And then we go and help that need. One of the things that we pride ourselves with is we have very little red tape. We can turn around financial assistance within hours for a family. So Mike, in October, there's a section on your homepage of your website that says that there's a 30 year gala plan that celebration looks amazing.
And it really highlights the lives that the foundation has touched over the years. How can people help support your efforts? Well, you know, there's a couple ways they can support it. One, they can come and enjoy an absolutely world-class show.
And if you've ever seen David Foster in concert and David Foster in Friends with hit-hand shows about we've had in the past CD1, Celine Dion, Michael Boobley, Andre Bicheli. Everybody I talked about before on our show is in their multiple artists. We bring in a night, not just one. So that's one way they could do it.
They could come to the show. The other one they could make a donation to our foundation, 501c3 and we're registered very, and in the United States. We have probably about 20 to 25 percent of our attendees at our event come from the United States. They come from all over the world to our event.
So there's a couple ways that you can do it. You can go online to DavidFosterFoundation.com. There's links there and you can go in our offices and all that information is online. Mike, we can't thank you enough.
The website, DavidFosterFoundation.com and Joey, I'm speechless with what this foundation is doing. We talk about all the time the power of one and how one person can make an impact on so many and leave a legacy. And not only David, but you too and everyone there, the impact that you guys are making not only on patients themselves but their entire families and friends. That is just amazing and I applaud you.
Thank you for all that you do. Well, thank you so much Joey and Sean. I appreciate what you guys do as well. It's our pleasure to speak with you today and we just applaud you guys for for waving the flag and donate life Louisiana and just everybody involved the awareness of the need to become a registered organ donor.
Thanks so much for the time today. All right. Take care. Thank you Mike.
As we do in every podcast, we're going to take a moment to honor a donor and because we've been talking about we're going to issue an eye donation in Canada, Transplant Manitoba has provided us this story. This hero that we'll be honoring is Kelsey and this story is provided by her mom. We had no idea how much our lives would change in 2015. Losing our girl has been devastating.
Every day we miss her smile, her love of music, fashion and fishing, her sense of humor and her sneaky hugs. When we knew her struggle was over and there was no hope for her recovery, we as a family met with a caring team from Transplant Manitoba. We felt fortunate in knowing that Kelsey would have wanted this. We had spoken about organ donation when big sister Jenna received her driver's license and had a conversation about her signing her own donor card.
One of Kelsey's favorite books was Searching for David's Heart. It was about organ donation. We are glad that we had those talks and had that knowledge and feel she had a part in this decision. By donating her organs we extended her giving nature.
Today there are seven people who by all accounts are doing well because of her gifts. For us, Kelsey's family and friends, knowing what she was able to do for them has been tremendous. When we're missing her and feeling low, we try to turn our thoughts to those she helped and it gives us comfort and hope for them and their families. Jenna, Kelsey's sister put it best.
She said we can take comfort in knowing when someone meets the love of their life for the first time, it's her heart that will flood her. Her eyes will see another sunrise, another spring, and the face of a loved one. She's our superhero. We sincerely hope those recipients continue to regain their health and to live their lives to the fullest.
Donating to someone in need, even at your lowest point, will always benefit you in the end. It certainly has for us. And now we pause to thank Kelsey for the gift of life. And so Joey, you know we always say share, get in touch with us.
We have our email, we have our phone number, we have social media, and we get this question. We've gotten this question a lot in social media here lately. If you have an organ in the US, can it cross international borders to save someone's life? That answer in simple forms is yes, it doesn't happen often, but there are times, especially with our neighbors to the north, especially if there's an infant or someone obviously with a small waiting list where there's not a lot of patients to match with.
Oftentimes, there are good organs, but because of the size, or maybe some type of matching, they don't necessarily have the right recipient for that good organ. And in those cases, it has happened from time to time where either direction, where we've reached out from the United States and vice versa. So it does happen, it's rare. But of course, we've got to go through our own list first.
We can't just jump a list or anything like that. Instead of burying an organ that could save, especially a kid, certainly we'll go through every avenue that we can before we call a quiz. So there you have it. Another question answered, Joey, that was great information.
It was something when I saw the question come through, it never crossed my mind until I saw it. And it was like, yeah, I need to find out that answer. So if you have a question, you can get in touch with us. It's very easy.
You can give us a call 504-648-3477 or email us info at loca.org. We may even play or answer your question right here on the podcast. Wow, another great episode here. I was having the understanding that I have of how our processes are.
It was so interesting to me to learn a little bit more about our neighbors to the north. I want to start by thanking you, Shalon, but taking Lori's place, taking that difficult seat right there. It is a difficult seat. Somehow managed to get through it.
And we want to thank Dr. Fazal-Sadiki for just enlightening us with so much great information. There's so many differences there, so many different challenges that we just don't see here. I certainly want to thank him.
I'd like to thank Mr. Mike Ravenhill. He is the CEO at David Foster Foundation. The work they are doing to help those families in need is just astounding.
And 30 years doing it, unbelievable. We often say one person, Lori always says one person, and really it just takes one person making a difference to help make life happen. I'll take Lori's line here. Do something you wouldn't normally do to make life happen.
Have a good one.