Six lives have been saved by organs donated from this 21-year old victim of Canada’s horrific bus accident.
On April 6th, a bus full of aspiring hockey players in Canada’s prairie province of Saskatchewan was headed north on a rural highway to a playoff game. Approaching from the east and going west was a semi-trailer filled with peat moss. It would seal the players’ fate.
As the two vehicles met at an intersection with a fatal past, history repeated itself. The vehicles crashed together, killing 15 people on board the bus. The moment was brief but devastating.
In the days to come, stories and condolences have filled Canadian media, as people search for answers. While most of it is deeply laden with sadness, one silver lining has stood out.
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One of the victims in the crash, Humboldt Broncos player Logan Boulet just turned 21. He signed his organ donor card mere weeks before his death. Because of this, while Boulet lost his own life, he saved countless others.
Six people in Canada are now set to receive the benefit of his organs, with the rest going to science.
And his legacy has had a ripple effect. Through his simple act of generosity, Boulet has unknowingly inspired a six-fold increase in online registration for organ donation in Canada’s province of British Columbia, and other provinces are seeing sharp increases as well.
While 90% of Canadians express their approval of organ donation, only 20% actually sign their donor card, or register by other means. The result, as it is in many countries, is that hundreds of patients in need of transplants die each year, waiting for a cure.
Want to help? To sign up for organ donation in Canada, click here. To register as an organ donor in the U.S, click here.
