From outer space? Sask. farmers baffled after discovering strange wreckage in field
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
Brandy Hehn was a regular in the kidney dialysis unit at the Regina General Hospital when the deadly Humboldt Broncos bus crash happened five years ago.
Sixteen people died and 13 were injured after a transport truck went through a stop sign and into the path of a bus carrying the Saskatchewan junior hockey team on April 6, 2018.
Hehn, now 39, remembers a nurse walking into the room where she was getting a dialysis treatment a couple days later and commenting on the crash.
"She said, 'Did you know one of the boys was an organ donor?"' Hehn recalled in an interview from Regina.
"I said, 'No, I had no idea."'
Hehn was not on a recipient list at that time, but she said everyone in the room looked around and wondered if anyone they knew got their long-awaited kidney transplant.
Logan Boulet, 21, had signed up to be an organ donor on his birthday -- five weeks before the bus crash.
Six people across Canada benefited from Boulet's organs and the Logan Boulet Effect soon followed. Canadian Blood Services said nearly 150,000 Canadians registered to be donors in the two months after learning he had signed his donor card.
It led to Green Shirt Day every April 7, the anniversary of Boulet's death, to promote organ donor awareness and registration across Canada.
Hehn, a multimedia designer who's now a two-time organ recipient, created this year's T-shirt -- its design inspired by the Pittsburgh Penguins logo and team captain, Sidney Crosby, whom Boulet admired since he was a boy. It includes 29 gold stars for everyone on the bus, two hockey sticks for those who put them on their porches after the crash and the social media #LoganBouletEffect.
Dr. Sam Shemie, medical adviser for deceased organ donation with Canadian Blood Services, said donations have been "relatively steady" in the five years since Boulet's death.
"Bless that family for what they've done in his honour," he said in an interview.
The Logan Boulet Effect, said Shemie, continues to start conversations.
"Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have registered their decisions about organ donation or had a conversation with people they love about how they feel about it."
Logan's father, Toby Boulet, said his family felt it was important to talk about his son's donation from the beginning and it ballooned from there.
"Logan's story has touched a lot of people," he said. "It's hard to believe it has been five years."
Boulet added that Hehn's T-shirt design for Green Shirt Day this year is "really cool" and her personal story is inspiring.
"She's from Saskatchewan and she's doing really well," he said. "It can't always be the Boulets saying the story. It's got its own legs in all corners of the country and into the (United) States. That's what we want."
Hehn's story started when she was having mysterious medical symptoms as a teenager.
"They kind of mimicked arthritis," she explained. "My knees would swell up. I would be out at a party in Southey, Sask., and I would have to hang out in a car because I couldn't move my legs."
She had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes three years earlier.
Two weeks after her Grade 12 grad, Hehn got another diagnosis: autoimmune hepatitis, a rare liver disease that occurs when the body's immune system turns against its liver cells. The cause is unclear, but it could be triggered by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
By her early 20s, Hehn needed a liver transplant. She got one when she was 25.
Her kidneys didn't do well as her liver was failing. Doctors told her to also expect a kidney transplant in the next decade.
"I started dialysis in 2016," she said. "I had six per cent kidney function."
Hehn, who was in her early 30s at the time, said dialysis was "zero fun."
She worked during the day, then went to the hospital in the evenings for several hours three times a week.
In 2020, Hehn got a new kidney from a deceased donor.
"It is completely like a new life," she said.
Shemie, also an intensive care doctor at Montreal Children's Hospital and McGill University, said thousands of Canadians are waiting for an organ transplant and hundreds die each year.
"Ninety per cent of Canadians say they support organ donation, but only about 32 per cent of them have actually registered their decision," he said. "If you support it, register your decision or talk to your family."
Hehn, who initially told her story as a recipient in an online video, said she wanted to tell people there are young people like her who benefit from organ donations -- and thank donors such as Logan Boulet.
"When you hear (his family) talk about it firsthand, it's the most heart-wrenching thing you will ever hear," she said.
"We don't know who Logan's recipients are, but putting a face to a recipient ... it's important to show."
Hehn said she's inspired by the Boulets.
"As euphoric as it is to get a kidney," she said, her voice breaking, "it pales in comparison to the pain you hear from them.
"They make me tear up every time."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 26, 2023.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
Hailey and Justin Bieber are going to be parents. The couple announced the news on Thursday on Instagram, both sharing a video that showcases Hailey Bieber's growing belly.
High levels of lead detected in authenticated locks of Ludwig van Beethoven's hair suggest that the composer had lead poisoning, which may have contributed to ailments he endured over the course of his life, including deafness, according to new research.
A B.C. man has been convicted of assault with a weapon after using a skid-steer Bobcat to chase two homeless people from his lawn, injuring one of them in the process.
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
If you're cruising down a highway and realize you have a flat tire, you may want to think twice before stopping to fix it on the side of the road.
Miss Teen USA resigned Wednesday, sending further shock waves through the pageant community just days after Miss USA said she would relinquish her crown.
A Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre would not legislate on, nor use the notwithstanding clause, on abortion, his office says, as anti-abortion protesters gather on Parliament Hill.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.