The NHS is struggling with funding, staffing, equipment and buildings. It often feels like there’s nothing we can do to help but there’s one area in which we can all have a huge impact. A new report shows that families who disallow organ donation are costing lives, and ordinary people can change that by signing up to donate and telling our families of our choice.
Family Feuds
Losing a loved one is a devastating experience and having to make a decision about organ donation adds yet more grief. Knowing the decedent’s wishes beforehand helps enormously but too many people avoid having that conversation. Now an NHS report shows some people’s desire to donate organs is being thwarted as families withdraw consent due to delays in transplants.
This year’s Organ Donation and Transplantation Report has found there are severe lags in finding recipients for organs. Film and television portrayals of donation make it all look instantaneous but the reality takes a long time. During the search for viable recipients a brain or heart-dead donor must be kept “alive” so the organs stay as healthy as possible before being removed. The stress and emotional toll on family members is causing many to change their minds and refuse to donate organs if it means watching their loved ones linger.
Major Delay
The report says the delay is often caused by “considerable variation between transplant units and clinicians in their approach to risk when offered a donor organ for one of their patients”. Matching organs isn’t a simple yes or no but a sliding scale that requires risk assessment. It can sometimes take “many transactions to place organs with recipients, slowing down the process and resulting in extra stress for everyone involved. Sometimes donor families withdraw consent because they can no longer cope with the time involved.”
According to these new findings, family refusal to donate “represents our biggest obstacle”. The number of organ recipients who are now alive in the UK has reached 50,000 for the first time with recipients living longer but there is still an organ shortage.
The Blood and Transplant unit knows that families are “much more likely to support donation when the individual’s decision is known beforehand”. Registering to donate your organs is important but it’s crucial to tell your family about your decision. Difficult as death may be, your body is yours not theirs: make sure they know your wishes.
Need over Greed
Eligible donors are a rarity: just 5,681 people died last year in circumstances that allowed donation. As of July 13, 2017 there were 6,371 people waiting on the transplant list. Our inability to discuss and deal with death is costing their lives.
London’s rate for consent after brain death is 59% – the lowest in the entire UK. Research suggests this could be partly due to a larger mix of ethnicities and cultures. Unfortunately organs match best when donors and recipients are from the same race or ethnicity.
The lower donation rates among blacks and Asians is likely to only affect black and Asian recipients. The NHS is trying to tackle these lower numbers and has launched a campaign during Black History Month to encourage black organ, blood and stem cell donors. In 2014-15 just 1% of active blood donors and only 20 organ donors were black, even though blacks make up more than 3% of the population.
The report remains positive despite the difficulties and delays. Lorna Marson, the president of the British Transplantation Society, reminds us that “behind every statistic there are people”. While the numbers may seem distant, the awful reality for these people may one day become yours. That’s when you will really understand that every person signing up to donate makes a world of difference.
Sign up to become an organ donor today, tell your family and save lives.
by Jo Davey
The post NHS: Organ Donation Delays Cost Lives appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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