Ireland: Organ donation numbers drop despite campaign

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Organ donation numbers drop despite campaign

 <span style = 'color : #3c73b3;'>Organ donation numbers drop despite campaign</span>
Published 03/01/2015
   
http://www.irishnews.com/news/organ-donation-numbers-drop-despite-campaign-1403860

Organ donation numbers drop despite campaign

ORGAN donations in the Republic dropped by 25 per cent last year, despite high-profile campaigns raising awareness of the need for donors.
Charities have expressed concern after preliminary figures showed there were just 63 deceased donors last year, down from 86 in 2013.
After record figures in 2013, the last 12 months have been described as disappointing for organ donation and transplants.
The figures show 251 transplants were carried out, with a drop in the number of kidney, liver and pancreas procedures when compared to 2013.
However, there was an increase in the number of heart transplants.
Eighteen were carried out last year - the highest in a decade.
The Irish Kidney Association said the figures were concerning, with a target of 50 living donor kidney transplants missed for the second year.
The head of the office for Organ Donation and Transplant Ireland, Professor Jim Egan, said there have been several recent initiatives in an effort to increase donors.
He said his office remains committed to seeing an increase in donors.
Over the past few years the Opt for Life campaign, backed by Joe Brolly, pictured, has sought an increase in organ donations across Ireland.
The former All-Ireland winner helped launch the campaign after he donated a kidney to his friend Shane Finnegan in 2012.
The transplant proved unsuccessful after the kidney had to be removed due to medical complications.
In the north, research suggests that more than 80 per cent of people support donation, but less than half actually consent to the donation of a loved one's organs when faced with this choice.
Last month a Derry woman who lost her 38-year-old husband to a heart condition after he waited three years for a transplant issued an appeal for more organ donations.
Mother-of-two Suzanne Duncan, whose children have inherited the cardiac gene that killed their father, said she wanted more people to sign up to the organ register.
Andrew Duncan died in November, 14 years after he was first diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy.