There has apparently been stuff in the press about getting GP practices to more actively campaign to get patients enrolling in the national organ donor scheme, so I thought I'd make a few jottings on transplants.
27% of the population, or 16million people are currently enrolled to donate organs in the event of their death (including myself).
There are currently 380 patients on the waiting list for a transplanted liver- 38 of them under 25.
I personally was delighted last month when the department of health banned private transplants as i feel confidence in the system to work fairly was undermined constantly with the knowledge that some rich foreigner, paying for it, might take your relatives kidneys.
I think, and it is my experience, that when people agree to donate the organs of a dead loved one they have an idea that they will be doing someone some good.
It is the one good thing people can take away from what is almost always a terribly traumatic time.
There is a sort of expectation as well that the person receiving the organs will appreciate them and try and "do well" as a result.
There is a sort of expectation as well that the person receiving the organs will appreciate them and try and "do well" as a result.
It doesn't always turn out quite like that. I'm sure George Best meant to do well with his new liver, but just didn't really manage to.
Liver transplant units do have a proportion of patients who have damaged livers through drink or overdose. I remember my first day as a Medical SHO in Leicester General Hospital (August 1993), the Nurse explaining to me urgently that a young lady in one of the bays had had a marked deterioration in her liver over the weekend due to a paracetamol overdose and that she might bleed to death if not treated urgently. After discussing this with the patient she really did seem concerned now to try and live, so my first duties in this job were to arrange her urgent transfer to Birmingham liver unit under Prof Neuberger. Their doctors were and are very used to making sensible, if difficult, decisions on who is likely to make the best fist of it if a new liver comes up.
One in three of all kidney transplants now are from living donors- eg parents to children.
You may know already that our nurse Ali Cull donated a kidney some years ago to her son Pip who was on dialysis.
In a study looking at the reasons why people aren’t signed up to the NHS Organ Donor Register, the over 55s were twice as likely as the rest of the population to say they didn’t think they would qualify as suitable donors. Professor Neuberger, now Associate Medical Director at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “The belief that there is some sort of age limit on becoming an organ donor is a complete myth. Organs are successfully transplanted from people in their 70s and 80s and the oldest cornea donor recorded was 104 years old. There are also very few illnesses that prevent someone from donating their organs after death – that’s why we would encourage anyone who wants to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register to do so and ensure those close to them are aware of their wishes.
So I guess the message is- get youself on the organ donor register. Do it online now. A link to their website here. Or call, local rate, on 0300 123 23 23
Liver transplant units do have a proportion of patients who have damaged livers through drink or overdose. I remember my first day as a Medical SHO in Leicester General Hospital (August 1993), the Nurse explaining to me urgently that a young lady in one of the bays had had a marked deterioration in her liver over the weekend due to a paracetamol overdose and that she might bleed to death if not treated urgently. After discussing this with the patient she really did seem concerned now to try and live, so my first duties in this job were to arrange her urgent transfer to Birmingham liver unit under Prof Neuberger. Their doctors were and are very used to making sensible, if difficult, decisions on who is likely to make the best fist of it if a new liver comes up.
One in three of all kidney transplants now are from living donors- eg parents to children.
You may know already that our nurse Ali Cull donated a kidney some years ago to her son Pip who was on dialysis.
In a study looking at the reasons why people aren’t signed up to the NHS Organ Donor Register, the over 55s were twice as likely as the rest of the population to say they didn’t think they would qualify as suitable donors. Professor Neuberger, now Associate Medical Director at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “The belief that there is some sort of age limit on becoming an organ donor is a complete myth. Organs are successfully transplanted from people in their 70s and 80s and the oldest cornea donor recorded was 104 years old. There are also very few illnesses that prevent someone from donating their organs after death – that’s why we would encourage anyone who wants to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register to do so and ensure those close to them are aware of their wishes.
So I guess the message is- get youself on the organ donor register. Do it online now. A link to their website here. Or call, local rate, on 0300 123 23 23
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