Organ donors getting scarce, say kidney experts

MANILA, Philippines—Have you ever thought of donating a part of you so that others may live?

The question was posed Wednesday by kidney experts from the Philippine Society of Nephrology who urged everyone to be “a hero for life” by donating their organ when they die.

This after Dr. Albert Chua, chairman of PSN’s Task Force on Kidney Transplant Issues, expressed concern over the scarce organ donors in the country in view of the increasing number of patients suffering from organ failure.

Chua told the Philippine College of Physician’s Health Forum in Quezon City that donating one’s organ was a heroic act supported even by the Catholic Church.

He quoted a statement from the late Pope John Paul II: “The Catholic Church would promote the fact that there is a need for organ donors and that Christians should accept this as a ‘challenge to their generosity and fraternal love’ so long as ethical principles are followed.”

Yet, despite existing laws promoting organ donation, only a few among the living had come forward to do so, he said.

According to Chua, a study entitled “A National Survey on Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceptions About Kidney Donation” by the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in 2005 showed that 78 percent of Filipinos were willing to become deceased donors.

There are 11,400 patients currently on dialysis and about 8,500 new patients yearly who can potentially have a better quality of life and longer survival with kidney transplantation, Chua said.

Of those on dialysis, 50 percent may be fit for kidney transplant while only about 20 percent can afford its cost, he added.

The Department of Health established a National Deceased Donor Program last June to implement a nationwide, efficient and transparent system of promoting, retrieving and allocating organs donated from deceased donors for purposed of transplantation.

This is an effort to increase awareness that all citizens can ultimately donate an organ upon one’s death. There are four existing Organ Procurement Organization, namely the NKTI-Hope (National Kidney Transplant Institute-Human Organ Preservation Effort), St. Luke’s Medical Center HOTPPROG (Human Organ Transplantation Program); Medical City -Lifeshare; and IPOD (Integrated Program for Organ Donation).Chua said that while donors can be living or deceased, the PSN would rather promote organ donation from deceased donors.

The organs that can potentially be donated by a deceased donor are kidney, cornea, liver, lung, heart and bone. Republic Act 7170, or The Organ Donation Act of 1991, legalized the act of donating organs from deceased donors.

It recognizes two kinds of death: cardio-respiratory death and brain death (victims of trauma, accidents, massive stroke). Under the law, a brain dead donor is a patient who has suffered massive irreversible brain injury, usually from head trauma or stroke and has been declared as such based on internationally accepted clinical criteria by at least two qualified physicians who are not part of a transplant team.

The Philippine Transplants Registry Data from 1999-2008 showed that deceased donors accounted for about 3 to 10 percent of total transplants.

Hardly tapped potential sources of organs are victims of vehicular accidents and trauma, Chua said.

There are five trauma deaths everyday in Metro Manila or 1,825 potential donors every year based on the National Bureau of Investigation Report in 2000, and 9,000 fatal road accidents nationwide based on the Philippine National Injury Survey- Asian Development Bank Accident Costing Report in 2002.

Still, Chua said many patients are not aware that they can receive kidneys from deceased persons while relatives are not aware that they can donate the organs of the deceased family members. Chua said that among the concerns raised against organ donation are low consent rates, religious and cultural barriers, lack of program in most hospitals, and low referral rates/delayed response time to referrals.

The PSN, in a letter to President Aquino last July 13, urged him to personally support the deceased donation program through a nationwide awareness program and Computerized Deceased Donor allocation system through the Department of Health to promote understanding and acceptance from the people. It also encouraged more Living-Related /emotionally-related Donors; increase Philhealth kidney transplant package to cover ; post-kidney transplant immunosuppressive medicine, among others. Dr. Lyn Gomez, PSN’s chairman of the Committee on Deceased Donor Program, said the association does not encourage organ for sale as the law provides that it should be donated.

Gomez said there were 511 (477 Filipinos and 34 foreigners) organ recipients in 2009, compared to 690 (408 Filipinos and 164 foreigners) in 2006.

Gomez said the reduced number of foreign recipients was due to the current policy to give donated organ to Filipino patients on waiting list. –Cynthia Balana, Philippine Daily Inquirer