Organ transplants - to donate or not (2)

Where are the donors?

Yin was lucky getting a perfect match, out of several dozen people with heart problems who were still waiting.

Dong Nianguo, the chief surgeon working on Yin and a major specialist in that field, noted regretfully, "A lot of people die waiting for a heart."

But, with so few organ donors and the huge difference between the need and the supply, things can look rather grim. In contrast, the surgical procedures for many organ transplants in China are mature enough to ensure a high rate of success, but unfortunately for those in need of a heart, kidney, liver, lung, or a cornea, even with the expert service, prospects can be quite dim.

So, "When something unusual happens, it makes the news, and people notice what Chen and his family did, because so few people do the same", Dong said.

In this regard, there was a national pilot program that started in 2010, to solicit organ donations, in 19 provinces, including Hubei. Red Cross branches have set up offices to make people more aware of the importance of organ donations and to connect with area hospitals to look for potential donors.

Personnel from these offices talk with dying patients or their family members to try to get their permission to donate. And, a computerized system tracks the needs of waiting patients in relation to the state of the disease and the distance from a potential donor, then identifies the most likely recipient.

Chen and his family who were willing to donate his organs became a part of this system. But statistics show, by the end of February, only 659 people had donated organs, a total of only 1,804, via this system.

Xiu Dianrong, a liver transplant surgeon at Peking University's No 3 Hospital, said, "There are a lot of potential donors, but few become donors."

At Xiu's hospital, one of the earliest to undertake liver transplants in China, the lack of organs is the biggest major obstacle to saving lives. It is certainly not the technical difficulties.

The Chinese have little exposure to a philosophical approach to death, which is an unpleasant cultural topic, and few can accept the idea of donating organs of a loved one who is dying, or even talk about the possibility, Xiu commented.

But, Xiu continues, death, as well as illness and aging, need to be perceived as a natural part of life, and people should not be afraid.