Oh Canada

Being a young Concordia graduate in Canada means that I must do my part to keep up the reputation of my alma mater. Concordia is famous for its politically charged atmosphere- and its students reputed for speaking (or screaming out) their political views. In these rare moments where I contemplate for a moment how lucky we are to be in Quebec, and in Canada, I feel I need to acknowledge them.

Fred waited about five months for his new kidney/pancreas set. Our friend Ethan waited two years for his kidney (also in Montreal). In Ontario, patients wait up to eight years for a kidney transplant and have to be on dialysis before even being put on the transplant list. Fred was fortunate that he is an AB blood type, making him a universal recipient. His age and his diabetes allowed him to move up the list quickly, saving him the ordeal of undergoing dialysis. On top of that, the Royal Victoria Hospital here in Montreal happens to be the only hospital in Eastern Canada that performs pancreas transplants. Had we been anywhere else, we would have had the added stress of flying here for the procedure and dealing with hotel bills for his family and myself, not to mention the absense of friends around us.

Every day this week I have contemplated how fortunate we are not to be living in the US. The base cost of Fred's procedure in the US is broken down as follows:

• Procurement of organs: 118,000$
• Hospital stay: 70,400$
• Physician: 20,500$
• Testing: 12,400$
• Follow-up: 40,800$
• One year of Immuno-suppresant drugs: 31,000$
• Total: 293,100$

Cost to us for Fred's procedure in Canada:

0$

• Cost of Immuno-suppresants in the US over the next fifty years: 1,550,000$

• Cost of Immuno-suppresants in Canada over the next fifty years: 35,000$
• Canadian citizens pay no more than 700$ per year for prescription drugs
• The Immuno-suppresants cost 2,000$ per month, charged to the Canadian government
  

As much as we bitch and complain about our less than perfect system, we need to remind ourselves that the grass is not always greener. It almost makes me wish I weren't spending Canada Day helping people move (yet again).