• Salud Macarena, mother of a donor child: "The feeling that your child lives six lives is very satisfying"
  • Transplants The baby of the first woman transplanted from a uterus in Spain is born at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona

"In medical schools they do not teach us to give bad news and less in the worst scenario, which is to tell a family that they have lost a child or that they are going to lose it and talk about organ donation." This was expressed yesterday Monserrat Nieto, medical coordinator of pediatric transplants at the Niño Jesús Hospital in Madrid, during the table held this Tuesday at the Ministry of Health on the occasion of the National Day of the Donor of Organs and Tissues and Cells that is commemorated this Wednesday, June 7, and that focused on honoring the families of the donors.

After listening to the role of many of the associations that represent these families and donors and transplant recipients, Nieto said that giving this bad news in that scenario is a professional challenge, but also "a personal challenge, because each interview with families is different and leaves an emotional mark," and added: "We are moved by the desire to help someone we see in the eyes of those parents."

The medical coordinator of pediatric transplants of the Niño Jesús de Madrid also pointed out that her work is somewhat special, "because pediatric transplants are scarce, fortunately, and because evaluating a possible donor is not easy, since there may be, for example, diseases or previous damages that rule it out. "

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Bless you.

Irene, the end of a chain of living-donor kidney cross-transplants

  • Writing: PILAR PÉREZ Madrid

Irene, the end of a chain of living-donor kidney cross-transplants

Bless you.

Liver transplants from one to a thousand: the 13th was the first in the world for a trauma and not a disease

  • Writing: ROCÍO R. GARCÍA-ABADILLO Madrid
  • Writing: ÁNGEL NAVARRETE (Photographs)

Liver transplants from one to a thousand: the 13th was the first in the world for a trauma and not a disease

As for the process that, she said, leaves her "exhausted, but in the end very grateful," she said that they try to inform parents "in the most respectful and empathetic way of the whole donation process that is sometimes very long" but that gives life.

The Minister of Health, José Manuel Miñones, was in charge of closing the commemoration ceremony after the closing of the table coordinated by the general director of the National Transplant Organization (ONT), Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, and in which representatives of the four entities that make up the Union of Solid Organ Transplants (UTxs) were also present: the National Federation of Associations for the fight against kidney diseases (ALCER), the National Federation of Liver Patients and Transplanted (FNETH), the Spanish Federation of Cystic Fibrosis (FEFQ) and the Spanish Federation of Heart Transplants (FETCO).

Macarena, mother of a donor child: "The feeling that your child lives six lives is satisfying"THE WORLD

Esapaña grows 13% more in donation compared to 2022

Miñones stressed that Spain "continues to be a world leader and reference in transplants behind which there are many stories and a lot of life." According to ONT data as of May 31 that the minister gave, the number of donors and transplanted people has increased by 13% in the first five months of the year compared to 2022.

"A total of 1,010 people have donated one or more organs after their death, 13% more, and 169 in life, so far this year," he said. "Thanks to them," he added, "up to 2,394 people have received a transplant and have had that second or third chance that has changed their lives, and not only theirs, but that of their families," said the minister and valued the role of the professionals of the National Health System on whom the success of the model pilots along with the role of families.

In 2022, one in four transplants in Europe was performed in Spain, and 5% worldwide. In addition, as Miñones recalled, "Spain is the first country in the world in asystole donation and in 2022, this type of donation increased by 38% compared to the previous year."

Miñones also recalled that, since the creation of the ONT in 1989 until now, "122,317 transplants have been performed." In that year "there were 550 people who donated their organs after his death. Just ten years later, the number has almost tripled to 1,334 donors."

According to the data presented by Miñones, in Spain "84% of the families to which the donation is offered accept, a great increase compared to 70% in the 90s". This rate is lower in countries such as Germany (56%), Australia (56%), the United States (76%), Italy (71%) or the United Kingdom (66%).

The Minister of Health claimed the importance of donation and the Spanish transplant system, public and 'free' for families: "Few therapies are capable of generating an act as beneficial as organ donation. A single donation can benefit more than 100 patients. Today anyone can be a donor, but we can also be on the other side and need an organ," he concluded.

  • Transplants

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