Plea for more organ donors

DEAD or alive, the Organ Donor Foundation says anyone can become a donor and has encouraged more people to sign up.

Organ Donor Foundation executive director of operations Samantha Nicholls said that globally getting people to sign up as donors was difficult but in South Africa the number was “exceptionally low”.

She said every year up to 60 000 South Africans had the chance to save lives by signing up as organ donors, yet only 92 people ever make the commitment. During the Covid-19 pandemic that figure dropped to 32, said Nicholls.

“According to Stats SA, an average of 500 000 people die every year. Of those,12% are accident-related deaths. This tells us that possibly 60 000 people could be potential organ donors.”

This week the Organ Donor Foundation made an impassioned plea for more donors, saying that one person could save up to seven lives and help a further 50 patients.

“Your heart, liver and pancreas can save three lives and your kidneys and lungs can help up to four people. You can help up to 50 people by donating your corneas, skin, bone, tendons and heart valves,” said Nicholls.

She cited a lack of understanding as the biggest barrier to organ donations but said this could be solved through education.

“We could say that religious or cultural beliefs are a problem but we find that once people are educated properly on the subject of organ and tissue donation, they feel comfortable to register.”

The other barrier, said Nicholls, was the lack of referrals from hospitals. “Even if the person is not a suitable solid organ donor, they can still donate tissue after death. ICU and trauma unit staff should refer every possible death to the closest transplant centre or tissue bank.”

Nicholls said they encouraged everyone to register as donors, no matter their age or if they had chronic health conditions. She said while some medical conditions or illnesses could exclude some people from being donors, that would be decided by medical professionals at the time of the person’s death.

However, in certain instances organ donations could be made even if the donor is still alive.

“Live donations, such as a kidney, are often done between family members, because the blood groups and tissue types are more compatible. This ensures a higher success rate. The process includes thorough testing and they would ensure the person who is donating is in good health mentally and physically and can live a normal, healthy life with one kidney,” said Nicholls.

However, convincing people to sign up was their biggest challenge.

“Expecting to increase the number of organ donor consents from an average of 92 donors a year to thousands appears to be harder than we can imagine. Multiple reasons are routinely cited to explain this disparity, such as culture barriers, not enough communication, a lack of awareness, and a scarcity of resources to mention but a few of the commonly repeated reasons.”

Nicholls said the easy solution, which could have an immediate impact on organ donor consent numbers, was for people to sign up immediately and inform their families so they could encourage medical staff to ensure that the organs or tissue of their loved ones are used.

To register as a donor visit www.odf.org.za or call the toll free number on 0800 22 66 11.