Only 5.5% of Estonians have officially declared their willingness to become organ donors after death, and one of the reasons for the low rate is misinformation, writes ERR News.
Virge Pall, head of the Transplantation Center at Tartu University Hospital, said that between 50 and 70 organ transplants are performed in Estonia every year, adding that the lack of donors is a constant problem. About 58,000 people have donated their organs after death, and Pall said that the number could certainly be higher.
People of all ages, from young children to seniors, need transplants. Pall told the program Aktuaalne kaamera on the 1st of March that the reasons for transplants can be different: in the case of kidneys, the most common reasons are inflammation, as well as damage caused by diabetes and high blood pressure; liver transplantation is necessary for people with liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, and other organs are also damaged by various diseases that can lead to the need for transplantation.
Most organ donation occurs after a person’s death, but some organs can also come from a living donor. In Estonia, both cases are possible in transplant operations. Organs from a living donor are used only for kidney transplantation, and usually the donor is a close relative of the recipient, the two are connected by an emotional bond and there is a genetic match for the operation to be successful.
In turn, organ donation after death is anonymous,
and in Estonia only organs from donors who have been diagnosed as brain dead are used – this means that there is a complete loss of reflexes in the cerebral cortex and brain stem.
The small number of potential donors is partly influenced by the often false information in society. Pall said that there is a myth that if permission has been given to use organs after death, then when a person arrives at the hospital, they will not be treated appropriately. The doctor pointed out that this does not happen, and the main task of doctors is to treat patients. Permission for the use of organs is opened only if it is no longer possible to save the patient’s life, but there is a chance to help someone else.
Since 2017, Estonia has been included in the organ exchange organization Scandiatransplant, which also includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway. This allows it to help patients who urgently need a transplant.
Pall added that even when a person’s life has ended, it is still possible to do good work, and donated organs can give many years of life to someone else.
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