A call for more conversations about organ donation in Aotearoa New Zealand comes within months of a milestone transplant operation at Auckland City Hospital.
In February, surgeons performed the hospital’s 3000th kidney transplant.
It’s nearly 60 years since the first kidney transplant was performed in Auckland in 1965.
Auckland City Hospital is now the site of most of the country’s kidney transplant operations.
The procedure is also carried out in Wellington and Christchurch.
The record setting transplant operation in Auckland is set against a backdrop of a worldwide shortage of donor organs.
“Globally, there is a shortage of organs. This is just a fact of life for every country,” said Sue Garland, donor co-ordinator team leader at Organ Donation NZ.
“We compare ourselves a lot to Australia and England, just because Australia is across the ditch and we work really closely with them. Their rates [of donation] are definitely better than ours.”
Garland believed more conversation is needed within whānau about organ donation because it is ultimately families who consent to a loved one’s organs being donated for transplant.
Currently there are 600 New Zealanders on the waitlist for kidney transplants. (Source: 1News)
“Transplantation saves lives and changes lives,” she said.
“For people who are on a transplant list, there is no where else for them to go, so having a transplanted organ is going to save their life.”
Garland also emphasised that an indication of willingness to donate on a drivers licence is purely an “expression of interest”.
Final decisions about organ donation are made by whānau — often when a loved on is on life support in intensive care.
Vascular and transplant surgeon Dr Carl Muthu also encouraged early discussion in families about organ donation.
“Ideally families would establish what their loved one’s wishes are before they die so it makes it a lot easier for families to act on that,” Muthu said.
“But it is possible for families to assume that this is what their loved one would want even if it hasn’t been specifically expressed.”
‘A huge sacrifice’
Aucklander John Kearns knows first hand the benefits of organ donation.
He’s had three successful kidney transplants in the last 37 years — his first when he was aged just 23.
He had spent six months on dialysis when his sister donated one of her kidneys, enabling surgery to proceed in 1987.
He received two other kidneys from deceased donors in 2002 and 2015.
“The responsibility that you have is to look after that kidney and to do the best you can by it,” Kearns said.
“It’s getting the most out of the gifts that you’ve been given. It’s a huge sacrifice on my sister’s part and then on my subsequent transplants from deceased donors. So yes, it’s a good responsibility.”
Kearns said that his transplants have given him a better quality of life than he experienced on dialysis.
He spent six years doing overnight dialysis at his home when his second kidney began losing function.
“Dialysis can’t substitute what a transplant offers,” he said.
“You don’t get tired, sickness, cramps, there’s all manner of things and your life expectancy is limited.”
Kearns said he could not believe it when he received a call on Christmas Eve 2015, telling him a third kidney was available.
“We were down in Kawakawa getting some oysters for Christmas Day and I got the phone call,” he said.
“And it was really something. You know, six years is a long time to be on dialysis. So surgery on Christmas Day, what a present.”
Kearns encouraged would-be-donors to have a conversation with their family.
“Let their family know their wishes,” he said. “And generally, if they’re able to donate then they will if they’re compatible.”
Organ Donation NZ said one donor can provide enough organs for 10 operations.
Kidneys, hearts, lungs, livers, pancreas, eye tissue, heart valve tissue and skin are all used in transplant surgery.
Rigorous procedures are in place to ensure safe patient outcomes. Organ Donation NZ said only about 2% of potential organs meet the criteria for transplant.