The September 30, The Ottawa Hospital has become the first Canadian hospital to accept donations of umbilical cord blood local families. The collections have marked Canada Cord launching the first national donor funding blood bank, led by CBS, who spent most of the year raising money to start the program.
After the launch in Ottawa, it was announced that Brampton Civic Hospital north of Toronto will become one of three other hospitals able to collect samples of cells from cord blood stem for the gift -. the others are located in Edmonton and Vancouver
William Osler Health System, which operates the hospital Brampton, announced that it is entering a formal partnership with Canadian Blood Services to operate the blood bank donor cord. The organization provides cord blood collection process will begin in early 2014.
CBS estimated that cord blood donations will help the 50 percent of Canadians who need a stem cell transplant find the hope of a better life. Until now, Canada was the only developed country in the G8 not to have a national bank cord blood donor. Consequently, minority or mixed-ethnicity patients that are prevalent across Canada were left with few treatment options.
Families can also bank with private banking cord blood as a means to ensure their children can access their cord blood stem cells for the potential treatment if the need is feel.