Spain leads world in organ donation, transplant

The Spanish health service may have suffered a series of cutbacks as a result of the economic crisis, but there is one area in which Spain remains a leader and the Spanish people set an example of solidarity for the rest of the world: organ donation and transplantation. In the 25 years since its creation in 1989, the Spanish National Transplant Organization (ONT) has overseen more than 90,500 organ transplant operations, including over 57,000 kidney transplants, 21,576 liver transplants, 7,024 heart transplants, more than 3,200 lung transplants and over 1,500 pancreas transplant operations. This is in part due to the fact that Spain has the highest rate of organ donors in the world. In 2013, a total of 1,655 people in Spain donated their organs, with an average of 35.1 donors per million people, well above that of the European Union's 19.2, the Unite States' 25.8, and even four times of the Latin America's 8.2. Speaking to Xinhua, Dr Rafael Matesanz of the National Transplant Organization said the average number of donors in Spain was between 5 and 6 donors per day, but "there are peaks of 14, 15 or 16 donors and the activity can vary." It was during one of those peaks that the ONT set a new record. "Very recently we achieved 45 transplants in one day," said Matesanz. He added that when it began operating 25 years ago in 1989, the ONT oversaw a total of 550 operations. This becomes even more impressive bearing in mind the complex process that needs to take place before a transplant operation can even begin. There are 181 hospitals in Spain authorized to take organ donations and each of these has a coordinator who has to speak to the donor's family and a judge before organ extraction can take place. This has to be done following the correct procedure regarding X-rays and analysis before the coordinator gets in contact with the National Transplant Organization in Madrid. The coordination center at the ONT has a list of people who need organs and they look for an appropriate match for the organ. There can be several recipients for one donor in different parts of the country. Once the person to receive the organ has been established, the ONT then has to organize transport for the organ to reach one of the 43 Spanish hospitals authorized to perform transplants along with the recipient and the team to perform the operation. This substantial logistics operation has to take place in a maximum of five or six hours to ensure the organ does not begin to deteriorate. "It is a complex process, which sometimes needs over 100 people to take part, including the donor's hospital, the recipient hospital, police, transport, and aircraft etc." said Matesanz. The year 2010 saw the work of the ONT was rewarded with the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation. "I think that transplant in Spain is an honor of national pride. We have been leading the world in the percentage of donors and number of transplants for 22 years," commented Matesanz, who believes his organization will have even more work in the future. "Transplants are a technique which needs constant renewal. When we started 25 years ago, we didn't expect it would grow to be like what it is now. We are introducing new techniques everyday, such as on preserving organs," he said. He said he believes that transplantation technique is going to continue evolving and growing. "It's reasonable to foresee that in five to ten years we will be doing new things and we will have more activity than at the present."