Sudbury woman first to participate in Heart in a Box program in the North

A new technique to preserve donated hearts could be a major boost for efforts to increase the number of transplants each year in Sudbury.

On Tuesday in Sudbury, Health Sciences North honoured Angèle Labelle for being the first donor to its Heart in a Box Program.

The program keeps a donor’s heart beating after their death, aiding the process of transplanting it into a patient.

Labelle, the donor in this case, faced significant health challenges throughout her life. Despite the challenges, her family said she had a vibrant presence, known for her resilience and joy.

“Angele was diagnosed with epilepsy as soon as she was born,” said her sister, Ashley.

“She (had) 250 seizures a day for the first two years of her life. She also had cerebral palsy. She was deaf, blind.”

Last spring, she ended up in the hospital after suddenly experiencing problems with her lungs.

“She would not have quality of life if we would have continued to try to keep her alive for us, which was being selfish,” Ashley said.

“Therefore, we decided to (go through) the process of ending her life and got in with Trillium Gift of Life, and we were able to make sure that we’re going to be donating her organs.”

With her death at 27 years old, Labelle became the first donor in northeastern Ontario to participate in the Heart in a Box program.

The program makes use of a portable device that maintains a donor heart in a beating, oxygenated state for up to 12 hours.

Dr. Bhanu Nalla, donation physician at HSN, said Heart in a Box makes a huge difference in increasing the number of hearts available for transplants.

“In Canada, we only donate a small fraction of hearts due to the way the organ donation process takes place,” Nalla said.

“This new technique has given us the opportunity to increase that pool by up to 20 to 30 per cent.”

He said Labelle’s case was only the third time Heart in a Box was done in Canada.

The procedure was done in collaboration with Toronto General Hospital. The hope is that within the next few years, it will become more common in Canada.

“This was a first for us,” Nalla said.

“It did involve some unique aspects of organ donation, which as our team weren’t familiar with,” Nalla said.

“But we were all invested. We took out a lot of time and a lot of support to make this happen for Angele.”

May 9 will mark one year since Angele’s passing. The family has reached out to the woman in the U.S. who received her heart in hopes of connecting in time for the anniversary.

In the meantime, the family hopes by hearing Angele’s story, others will be inspired to register their consent for donation.

“Since, her donation, I’ve been researching a lot of statistics and everything and not a lot of people are registered donors,” Ashley said.

“I believe that you know, everybody should be doing their due diligence and registering ... Giving consent is the biggest gift of life right there.”