#LoganBouletEffect and Green Shirt Day still inspire organ donors, 5 years after bus crash

Brandy Hehn has been reluctant in the past to talk about the organ transplants that saved her life.

She finds it painful — even traumatic — to relive her near death experiences, and to think about all the people she met at dialysis treatment who died waiting for a transplant.

"In the week that I got my transplant, four people got kidneys and four people died. So it's like, you never know which way it's going to go," Hehn said.

She was diagnosed with a rare liver disease when she was just a teenager. In 2009, at the age of 25, her liver was shutting down, her skin and eyes were yellow, and doctors had predicted she'd be dead by the summer.

Hehn got the phone call for a liver transplant in March of that year.

She was worried she wouldn't be so lucky the next time.

#LoganBouletEffect

In 2020, then in need of a kidney, Hehn only waited a few months on the transplant list. It might have been luck, but she credits the Logan Boulet Effect — a wave of organ donation registrations since 2018 inspired by the story of the young hockey player whose organ donations helped six people.

Her gratitude compelled her to overcome her anxiety, share her story and design the 2023 Green Shirt Day logo.

"I wanted to give [his parents] a thank you," Hehn said, for "organs and hope."

By now, most Canadians have likely heard Logan Boulet's story.

The 21-year-old Humboldt Broncos defenceman signed his organ card on his birthday –— five weeks before the Humboldt Broncos bus crash. He was inspired to become an organ donor by his fitness coach, Ric Suggitt, who passed in June 2017.

When Logan told his father Toby Boulet about his wishes, Toby joked, "Nobody wants your organs, you'll be 85."

WATCH | Toby and Bernadine Boulet tell the story of donating Logan's organs

Logan died on April 7, the day after the crash. Six people benefited from his organs and many others from his legacy.

Logan's story inspired 150,000 Canadians to register as organ donors in the weeks following the bus crash, and another 100,000 on the first Green Shirt Day.

"As we approach five years, we still get people who come and tell us, 'I registered because of Logan's story,'" his mother, Bernadine, said.

WATCH | Toby and Bernadine Boulet talk about the 5th anniversary of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.

People want to donate, but don't register

Dr. Sam Shemie, medical adviser for deceased organ donation with Canadian Blood Services, told the Canadian Press that hundreds of people still die each year while waiting for a transplant.

"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 echoed that plea.

She may need another kidney in roughly eight to 10 years. She'd like to see more Canadians register as donors, and for health-care workers and hospital protocols to encourage people and families.

Her T-shirt logo includes calls to "Register" and "Tell your family." The design, inspired by Logan Boulet's love of Pittsburgh Penguin Sidney Crosby, includes two hockey sticks as a homage to all the sticks that people put on their porches after the bus crash, and 29 stars to honour all the passengers on the Broncos bus.

The Green Shirt Day campaign hopes to inspire 100,000 new donors. The website has links to register as an organ donor in each province.