Number of organ donors on the rise

THE number of organ donations is on the increase for the first time in five years.

Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, which is home to the National Organ Procurement Service, received organs from 70 donors up to the end of September five more than in all of last year.

Another positive result was that the majority of cases were multi-organ donations, allowing surgeons the option of using kidneys, liver, heart and lungs from the same donor.

The increase comes after several years when the annual total fell below 70, a reduction attributed to concerns about rights and safeguards for donors and donors' families in the wake of organ retention scandals here and in Britain.

The indications of a turnaround in public opinion come as the country's newest transplant unit, the heart and lung unit at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, makes final preparations for what it hopes will be the first heart and lung transplant on Irish soil in January or February.

Patients, mainly cystic fibrosis sufferers, have to travel to Britain for surgery, adding considerable complications to an already complex procedure.

Transplant numbers increased notably in Ireland last year with the assistance of donations from Britain, with which Ireland has a two-way agreement for the sharing of donated organs so that patients most in need receive transplants first. A total of 144 people received kidney transplants here last year; 16 received new hearts and 38 had liver transplants. There are always more people on the waiting list than there are available organs, however, and in the case of kidney patients, about 120 are waiting each year and some die before receiving transplants.

Ceremonies are being held in Stockholm today, the fifth European Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation, to remember organ donors and their families and celebrate the second chance at life for those who have received transplants.

Organised by the Council of Europe, the commemoration day aims to raise awareness of the importance and success of organ donation and to encourage greater co-operation between the 45 member States along the lines of the arrangement that exists between Ireland and Britain.

During the summer, the council asked all member States to consider setting up national organ donor registers to record and hold details of willing organ donors for consultation by doctors across the region.

Transplant campaigners believe people might be more inclined to sign up to an official data base, which they can have altered at any stage if they change their minds, than to carry around donor cards which can be easily lost or damaged and may not sufficiently convince relatives of their loved one's wishes if they were signed some time previously.

The Department of Health said it had recently appointed David Hickey, transplant director at Beaumont Hospital, to the European Health Committee, which is examining how such a transnational system would work.