Say you needed a new lung, what if it was my lung that you were offered? would you be ok with it?
Personally I wouldnt be happy as im not dead yet! i know I have more than one but im keeping that one in a shoebox for safe keeping.
"Transplant patients given lungs of smokers due to shortage of organ donors"
Desperate transplant patients are being given the lungs of chain smokers because the NHS is so short of organ donations.
Surgeons are also being forced to use diseased body parts from cancer sufferers, drug addicts and the very elderly.
Experts say that the waiting list for transplants has now grown so long that hospitals are increasingly resorting to implanting so-called 'high risk' organs.
There are around 8,000 people needing an organ donation at any one time and every day three patients die because they do not get one in time.
As a result, doctors say that most patients would probably accept a 'high risk' or 'marginal' organ as without it they may not survive the year.
They are also using tissue from those more at risk of carrying HIV and Hepatitis C such as gay men and drug users.
These groups are not allowed to give blood but they can donate organs simply because there is such a shortage.
Professor James Neuberger, associate medical director of the NHS Blood and Transplant, the Government agency responsible for organ donations said: 'In an ideal world you would rather have lungs from 20-year-old healthy people who have never smoked, but that isn't a luxury we have.
'You have to say do you get a lung with more risk or do you get no lung?
'That sounds crude and brutal but it is the reality.
'If I were to put it to you or a member of your family that there was a 50 per cent chance of transmitting a virus or a 100 per cent of dying, it will come down to the balance of risk.'
Last week doctors warned that the quality of organs was decreasing because growing numbers of donors are either obese or very elderly
Up to a quarter of dead donors are very overweight compared to just a seventh ten years ago, according to figures from NHS Blood and Transplant.
The number of donors over 70 has also quadrupled in the last decade.
Those who are obese are more likely to have coronary heart disease, so their hearts are damaged, as well as fatty livers and pancreases which will not function as well
All organs decline with age so they will less useful for the donor.
Although some patients are specifically asked whether they are happy to take a 'high risk' or 'marginal' organ, the decision is often left to the doctor.
The NHSBT is now drawing up new guidelines which are expected to require hospital staff to check with patients whether they will accept potentially damaged organs.
Dr Alexander Gimson, a liver specialist at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, who is advising on the guidance said: 'We say to people: look, all organs have a risk, some high risk, some low risk, please trust us, we will give you the one that is best for you but we will not necessarily ring you at 2am and say do you want this particular one?
'We will say here is your organ.
'I would use an organ from a 100-year-old patient. There is no limit to the age you can use a liver and now we can say what the risks associated with it are.
'We have certainly, and so have other units, transplanted organs from 70-year-olds.'
'But last year a young woman died just five months after being given the lungs of a 30-a-day smoker.'
Lyndsey Scott, 28, a cystic fibrosis sufferer, developed severe pneumonia shortly after the transplant.
She was never told the organs would be coming from a smoker and her family claimed that she would never had gone ahead with the operation if she had known.
Source
NHS Donor Specialists at Work...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE7KvAyVnbw
Personally I wouldnt be happy as im not dead yet! i know I have more than one but im keeping that one in a shoebox for safe keeping.
"Transplant patients given lungs of smokers due to shortage of organ donors"
Desperate transplant patients are being given the lungs of chain smokers because the NHS is so short of organ donations.
Surgeons are also being forced to use diseased body parts from cancer sufferers, drug addicts and the very elderly.
Experts say that the waiting list for transplants has now grown so long that hospitals are increasingly resorting to implanting so-called 'high risk' organs.
There are around 8,000 people needing an organ donation at any one time and every day three patients die because they do not get one in time.
As a result, doctors say that most patients would probably accept a 'high risk' or 'marginal' organ as without it they may not survive the year.
They are also using tissue from those more at risk of carrying HIV and Hepatitis C such as gay men and drug users.
These groups are not allowed to give blood but they can donate organs simply because there is such a shortage.
Professor James Neuberger, associate medical director of the NHS Blood and Transplant, the Government agency responsible for organ donations said: 'In an ideal world you would rather have lungs from 20-year-old healthy people who have never smoked, but that isn't a luxury we have.
'You have to say do you get a lung with more risk or do you get no lung?
'That sounds crude and brutal but it is the reality.
'If I were to put it to you or a member of your family that there was a 50 per cent chance of transmitting a virus or a 100 per cent of dying, it will come down to the balance of risk.'
Last week doctors warned that the quality of organs was decreasing because growing numbers of donors are either obese or very elderly
Up to a quarter of dead donors are very overweight compared to just a seventh ten years ago, according to figures from NHS Blood and Transplant.
The number of donors over 70 has also quadrupled in the last decade.
Those who are obese are more likely to have coronary heart disease, so their hearts are damaged, as well as fatty livers and pancreases which will not function as well
All organs decline with age so they will less useful for the donor.
Although some patients are specifically asked whether they are happy to take a 'high risk' or 'marginal' organ, the decision is often left to the doctor.
The NHSBT is now drawing up new guidelines which are expected to require hospital staff to check with patients whether they will accept potentially damaged organs.
Dr Alexander Gimson, a liver specialist at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, who is advising on the guidance said: 'We say to people: look, all organs have a risk, some high risk, some low risk, please trust us, we will give you the one that is best for you but we will not necessarily ring you at 2am and say do you want this particular one?
'We will say here is your organ.
'I would use an organ from a 100-year-old patient. There is no limit to the age you can use a liver and now we can say what the risks associated with it are.
'We have certainly, and so have other units, transplanted organs from 70-year-olds.'
'But last year a young woman died just five months after being given the lungs of a 30-a-day smoker.'
Lyndsey Scott, 28, a cystic fibrosis sufferer, developed severe pneumonia shortly after the transplant.
She was never told the organs would be coming from a smoker and her family claimed that she would never had gone ahead with the operation if she had known.
Source
NHS Donor Specialists at Work...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE7KvAyVnbw
Last edited:
