The Manitoba Health Coalition and safe blood and patient advocate Kat Lanteigne held a press conference this morning sharing new details about the death of international student Rodiyat Alabede. With the permission of her family, Lanteigne disclosed that Ms. Alabede’s cause of death was a sudden cardiac arrest due to dilated cardiomegaly, a condition she did not know she had. It is the responsibility of Grifols to properly screen their plasma sellers and to ensure their safety throughout the donation process.
The new information shared by Lanteigne underscores the urgent need for Manitoba to do more to protect our citizens from the risk of selling their plasma to Grifols. The Manitoba Health Coalition and our allies in health coalitions across the country remain steadfast in our demand that Manitoba must ban paid plasma in our province as other provinces have done. Together with our fellow advocates, we are calling on Health Canada, Canadian Blood Services, and provincial governments to take immediate action to end Grifols’ authorization to collect plasma not only in Manitoba, but everywhere in Canada.
Furthermore, we are calling for a federal inquiry into Grifols and the death of both Ms. Alabede in October 2025 and that of another Manitoban (whose identity has yet to be released) in January 2026. Stronger oversight and regulation of plasma collection by Health Canada is also needed.
“The profit motive will always incentivize companies like Grifols to cut corners in staff training, machine maintenance, and donor screening. This same profit motive predictably exploits vulnerable individuals who sell plasma due to financial necessity. We cannot run a safe plasma collection system when profit is involved.
Manitoba must shutter all Grifols locations pending a federal inquiry into these tragic incidents. We are also pushing for legislation banning paid plasma donation in Manitoba as BC and Quebec have done.” Noah Schulz, Provincial Director of the Manitoba Health Coalition.
We must protect Canadians and the integrity of the blood supply across Canada by keeping blood donations public and voluntary.
Watch the full press conference here: