Organ Transplants

Providence Health Care is a major provider of kidney and heart transplant services for British Columbians.

Services

Heart Transplant Program

The Heart Transplant Program at St. Paul’s Hospital is a partnership with BC Transplant. Patients who have a severely diseased or damaged heart may become candidates to receive a healthy heart from an organ donor.

Heart transplant patients can expect to spend 10 days to two weeks at St. Paul’s. Following surgery, these patients are closely monitored for infection and rejection of their new heart, and they also enter the Healthy Heart rehabilitation and recovery program. The St. Paul’s Heart Centre performs more than a dozen transplants each year. Patients need to be referred from their general practitioner.

The Heart Centre at St. Paul’s has two heart transplant clinics – a pre-heart transplant clinic , for patients who are referred to us to find out whether or not they are heart transplant candidates, and a post-heart transplant clinic for patients who have had a heart transplant. The services provided for these two clinics are similar to the services provided for the heart failure service. For more information please visit our Heart Centre.

Contact + Location

Pre and Post Heart Transplant Clinic
St. Paul’s Hospital
5C/D – 5th Floor Providence II Building
1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6
Phone: 604-806-8602
Fax: 604-806-8763
Hours: Monday – Friday 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Closed on weekend and statutory holidays

Kidney Transplant Program

St. Paul’s Hospital is one of two adult kidney transplant centres in BC. The St. Paul’s Kidney Transplant Program offers pre-transplant referral and assessment services, transplant surgery and post-transplant care, as well as a variety of living donor programs. Patients who are potential kidney transplant candidates are referred by their kidney specialist for assessment and information about transplantation.

Potential transplant recipients are assessed individually by the transplant team to decide if the benefits of a kidney transplant outweigh the risks. The person must be healthy enough to survive the surgery and able to benefit from receiving a transplant. Patients who are eligible for kidney transplantation and who do not have a living donor option go on the waiting list for deceased organ donation. For more information visit our Renal Program.

Contact + Location

St. Paul’s Hospital
6A Providence Building, 1081 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6
Tel: (604) 806-8970
Toll free: 1-877-955-1755
Fax: (604) 806-9658
Email: recipientnurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

Donating An Organ

If you are interested in learning more about the provincial live donor programs and becoming a live kidney donor, or if you are interested in legally recording your decision regarding end-of-life organ donation, visit BC Transplant.