Willingness to donate organs is on the increase in Israel, from 46% last year to 54% now. “Twelve years of efforts have paid off,” officials say.
Out of 125 families whose loved one was determined to have suffered brain death, 69 families, or over 54%, agreed to donate the organs for transplants, while only 56 did not. This was the highest consent rate during the 12 years for which figures have been calculated, and the first time that those who said yes outnumbered the others.
Officials at the Israel Transplant Center were very pleased with the results, saying that years of public education on the importance of organ donations and about the finality of brain death has finally paid off.
In 2009, some 230 transplant operations were performed in Israel, with about 10% of them involving two organs. The number of patients waiting for organ transplants currently stands at 1,069, compared with 923 a year ago.
Cornea transplants (not included in the above statistics) increased significantly in 2009 – they were up 7.2%, to 682. Skin transplants rose from 41 in 2008 to 47 last year.
In addition, 47 lungs were transplanted into those who needed them.
A heart must be transplanted and connected to the new patient’s blood vessels no later than four hours after it is removed from its original “owner,” while kidneys can wait up to 24 hours. There are only six heart transplant specialists in Israel. Outside Israel, Jewish donors are not as common as others, partly because of the Jewish custom of burying the dead as soon as possible, making it difficult for the hospitals to deploy properly to harvest the organs.
The number of Israelis who have an Adi card giving permission to use their organs in case of death, under certain conditions, stands at 516,000 – 45,000 more than a year ago.