A South Asian Canadian doctor, Dr. Gill is a Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Division of Nephrology, St. Paul’s Hospital.  He is also President-elect of the American Society of Transplantation and is a member of several national working groups to advance care for transplant recipients in Canada.

Transplant Stories is a four-episode series revealing unprecedented access to transplant patients, and rarely seen footage from the operating room.  Transplant Stories streams for Free across Canada on Knowledge.ca, and had a a broadcast premiere on Knowledge Network last month.

Dr. Gill says, “These touching human stories of everyday people from all walks of life going through heart lung kidney liver and cornea transplants are a powerful reminder that we are all connected.   The gift of organ donation is blind to race, religion, gender, social status, or political belief  - the gift benefits all. An important message at a time when the world seems more divided - organ donation and transplants binds us all.”

Jeevan Kang is an Organ Retrieval Specialist at BC Transplant.  "I feel that it's very important to have discussions with your family about organ donation. Having these discussions about one's wishes will make it so much easier for them to support what you want."

Suki Mangat had his first kidney transplant after a serious car accident nearly took his life. That transplanted kidney failed over a decade ago and he has been on dialysis, and waiting for a new kidney ever since.  Suki’s daughter Chan, who is studying to be a doctor is also featured.

Dr. Jagbir Gill is a renal transplant specialist at St. Paul’s Hospital. He is interested in the expansion of organ donation, and the impact of donor status on post-transplant health outcomes.

With unprecedented access to patients and rarely seen footage from the operating room, Transplant Stories follows the intimate and dramatic stories behind just a few of the thousands of organ transplants performed each year in Canada.

We’ll see surgeons at Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital race against time to recover a heart, liver or lung from a donor and get it to a recipient in desperate need.

The series is directed by local filmmaker Sheona McDonald, for Omnifilm Entertainment.

To register as an organ donor: https://register.transplant.bc.ca/

More information: www.knowledge.ca/transplant-stories and transplantstories.ca