Tuesday, September 9

Tuesday facts: JA/Yes to Organ Donation

The use of Human organs for transplantation has steadily increased during the past decades.
Organ transplantation is now the most cost-effective treatment for end-stage renal failure. For end-stage failure of organs such as liver, lung and heart, it is the only available treatment.
The shortage of organs is a major factor affecting transplantation programmes.
Nearly 40 000 patients are now on waiting lists in Europe. In Norway the waiting lists as about 250 patients
These figures do not represent the true position. Because of the chronic shortage of organs, some transplant clinicians are extremely selective about the patients they put on the waiting list. Currently only those patients most likely to benefit will be even considered for transplantation.

The interchange of organs between EU member states is up to 20% of the total of organ transplants. Click on the links for facts from Euro Transplant and detailed figures given by Scandia Transplant.

First kidney transplantation took place in USA in 1954. In Norway 224 patients received one or more organs during the first 6 months of 2008. Some of the highlights in the transplantation timeline are shown here:(data from eurotransplant)
1954: First living donor kidney transplant (USA)
1963: First cadaveric donor kidney transplant (Belgium)
1963: First successful living donor kidney transplant (Norway)
1966: First pancreas/kidney transplant (USA)
1967: First heart transplant (South-Africa)
1967: First liver transplant (USA)
1981: First heart-lung transplant (USA)
1981: First heart transplant (Germany)
1983: First single-lung transplant (Canada)
1983: First heart-lung transplant (Germany)
1983: First Heart transplant (Norway)
1986: First double-lung transplant (USA)
1987: First intestine transplant (USA)
1987: First single-lung transplant (Austria)
1988: First split-liver transplant (USA)
1988: First split-liver transplant (Germany)
1989: First living donor liver transplant (USA)
1989: First intestine transplant (Austria)
1990: First living donor lung transplant (USA)
1990: First lung transplant (Norway)
1998: First combined Heart Kidney transplant (Norway)
1998: First combined Heart Lung Liver transplant (Norway)
All over the world we need to say JA/YES to Organ Donation.
A European Consensus Document of current status and strategies for improvement of organ donation, can be downloaded in Pdf format

Truls Zimmer (TX-pulm bilateral) has designed a logo which can be used as a background for your mobile phone. He has also (as I) put the logo into his own blog. By presenting the logo in your blog you show others your point of view to the challenge regarding organ shortage.

In addition you are free to fill in a Donor Card (my daughter called last week and told us that she now carries the card in her wallet) or
register your decision if that is the procedure in your own country.
However, most important wherever you are, is to talk to your family about your desire to donate organs and/or tissue if there is no longer hope for saving your own life. Your relatives will always be asked about your standpoint regarding your Gift for life. The figure can be downloaded as a poster here
Take a stand
, show it to visiting bloggers and ask them to do the same.

9 comments:

Anne said...

Flott og viktig post Arne.

Bruktmarkeder og antikvitetsbutikker, kunne fått en annen funksjon her ja..., men fra spøk til alvor... kan man transplantere tarm??? Gud, alt en ikke vet :-( og pancreas er jo desverre ikke så enkelt... nei, skulle vel sikkert lest litt faglitteratur ennå sitte her og være nyskjærrig på hva andre skriver om i dag :-)

Uansett, fin dag ønskes deg.

Anne said...

*smask* hav skulle en gjort uten et levende leksikon med en mus i hånden!! Nå slapp jeg ja...

Gus så kjedelig her i dag, urologen har fri (jakt vet du) bare ortoped pg gastrokirug her i dag, og damene taster vel mye...

FANCY said...

I have already done that...;)

I'm sorry that I have not bean able to create something for the bridge building project the last time and I will try to do something next time.

GundaM said...

Ja, en viktig sak det er sikkert.

Takk for god bedrings hilsenen, det er siste gang jeg jobber med høyglans oljemaling ja men du så flott det blir... Men er nok preget etter 12 år som dekoratør, uten bruk av verneytstyr på slutten av åttitallet. Og maske det klarer jeg ikke bruke...

Og ang rust ja... Jeg nevnte i forbifarten til en annen blogger her at jeg ikke er fornøyd før du kommer med noe rust inne på siden din her!

Anonymous said...

Great blog Arne. One correction, I have not designed the logo, it is a sticker that comes with the donorcard in Norway. I took a picture of it and displayed it on flickr.com

Pernille said...

Virkelig flott, Arne!

Arne, jeg har liggende en liten award til deg på bloggen min. Om du vil ha den, så blir jeg kjempeglad. For du inspirerer meg virkelig. Og du tar opp så mange viktige saker her! Sånn som denne i dag!
Virkelig flott!

PERBS said...

We have donors log on our state ID or driver's licenses here. My twin sister was an organ donor and many people live because of her today.

Anonymous said...

This is a nice post and an interesting one. My wife and I are both listed as donors.

I only have one "H" for my post today. I hope you like it. I put it on Canon Pixels

ANNA-LYS said...

YES!!!!

and that is not the same as I was speaking about in my post ... my Enlish must be really bad ... in Swedish I said:

Att vi är inte nöjda med utseende på våra vackra rosor så vi kultiverar sönder deras förmåga att fortplanta sig. Trädgårdsrosor bär inte längre frukt (nypon) de har blivit sterila. Är det vad vi håller på med med människan också (underförstått typ Michael ackson, inte för hälsa och överlevnad, utan för att vi inte är nöjda med hur vi ser ut).

((klem))


Du vet vid det här laget att jag såväl är donator som blodgivare!