Edmonton man's dying wish to leave body to science denied

Learning she wouldn't be able to carry out her father's dying wish sent Connie Ewashko into a panic of pain and grief.

Even before he wasdiagnosed with terminal cancer last August, Don Gray had signed all the relevant forms to donate his body to science and medical education.

"He wanted this to be something that he could leave behind," Ewashko said Tuesday.

Throughout his battle with metastatic cancer, nobody mentioned that there could be a problem with his plan to donate his body.

Gray died on Dec. 26.

"Three hours after he died we were told his body could not be donated," said Ewashko explaining the family was told it was because of the cancer.

'I was so angry, so upset'

8 years ago

Duration 1:04

Connie Ewashko wishes she could have told her dad that his dying wish to donate his body couldn't be fulfilled.

Already heartbroken from her 88-year-old father's death, Ewashko and her sisters now had to scramble to find an alternate plan.

"I was in a big fog, very grief-stricken," said Ewashko.

While the family decided on cremation and will figure out later what to do with the ashes, they're now demanding immediate action from the provincial government.

"We don't want other families to have to go through what we went through," Ewashko said.

Health Minister Sarah Hoffman described the case as "devastating" Tuesday and said the government is already taking steps to let other potential body donors know about the potential issues.

"I asked the department to reach out to them and make sure they are aware so that we don't have any more of these gaps," said Hoffman Tuesday.

Nine thousand other Albertanshave expressed wishes similar to Gray's and are hoping to donate their bodies for research.

The health ministry expects to mail notices to them within the next few weeks.

Hoffman noted that changes were made to the organ donation consent form last September. Itadvises people they also need to contact the Anatomical Gift Program at the University of Alberta or the Body Donation Program at the University of Calgary.

"There is a process about reaching out to U of A or U of C so that they're prepared, and so we've tried to make that very clear on the form so that [what happened to Gray] doesn't happen to any other families," said Hoffman.

In addition to issues that can make donations impossible such as disease, a health ministry spokesperson also said sometimes there are space issues that mean donated bodies can't be accepted.

'He would be proud'

Ewashko and her sisters are pleased the government is taking action even though they would have liked to have seen a quicker response.

But in her dad's honour she's going to keep pushing until she's satisfied.

"He would be proud to know we are doing this," she said.

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