Sharp drop in organ pledges

NST: A small group of staff at the main government hospitals in state capitals may have a search-and-find mission before them next year.
They may be required to identify potential organ donors and convince their families to allow the donation.
Each hospital may have an organ co-ordinator working with a tissue and organ procurement team of four or five hospital staff.
This is among the strategies that the Health Ministry is considering in the face of a dismal number of organ donations so far.
There have been only 5,780 pledges so far this year compared to 8,866 last year. Nearly 90,000 people have signed up for organs donations to date.
Only 16 organ donations were made last year with just six so far this year.
Health Ministry medical development division director Datuk Dr Noorimi Morad said the procurement team would identify brain-dead patients and inform the organ co-ordinator.
The co-ordinator would locate the potential donor's family to convince them to honour the pledge.
Dr Noorimi said the ministry hoped this would help increase the number of cadaveric donor organs.
"The number of cadaveric organs for transplants has dropped. This is worrying and we have to do something to change Malaysians' perception of organ donation."
She said it was important for all hospitals to have an organ co-ordinator so that he or she could effectively communicate and convince the family of brain-dead patients to donate their organs.
"Communication with family members is crucial. Co-ordinators must convince them on the importance of donating the organs of their brain-dead relatives to save the lives of others," she told the New Straits Times.
She said there were many young children and those in productive age who urgently needed lungs, hearts, kidneys and livers.
There are some 300 people, including newborns and children, awaiting liver transplants, heart (six), lung or heart-lung (10), kidney (more than 6,000) and hundreds for heart valves, cornea, skin and bones.
Dr Noorimi was saddened that many were dying young as they could not get organs for transplant.
"The ministry had trained staff for organ donations but over the years, some were transferred, some retired and some got promoted.
"Now, there is a need to sent a few more staff for special courses on how to go about creating organ donation awareness among Malaysians," she said.
The ministry, she said, was targeting Muslim donors as many of those waiting for transplants were of the faith.
Of the 90,007 people who have pledged their organs, 58,190 were Chinese, 20,076 Indians, and 9,033 Malays with the rest from other ethnic backgrounds.
Dr Noorimi felt too little had been done to get more Muslims to pledge and donate organs.
"I will meet soon with all those involved, including the organ co-ordinators and transplant teams from various hospitals, to discuss new approaches and strategies to get more cadaveric organs," she said.
At present, Dr Lela Yasmin Mansor is the main co-ordinator for the National Transplant Resources Centre at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
She oversees all organ related activities and campaigns, including harvesting of organs nationwide.
The National Lung Transplant co-ordinator for the Health Ministry is Datin Dr Aziah Ahmad Mahayiddin while the National Heart Institute (IJN) heart transplant co-ordinator is Sister Ramayee Sinnasamy.
The liver transplant team is headed by Selayang Hospital's Liver Transplant Unit consultant Dr Harjit Singh.
Kidneys are harvested by transplant teams from the Kuala Lumpur and Selayang hospitals while bones and and skins are taken by teams from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaya Medical Centre and Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
Corneas are usually harvested by the respective hospitals.
Dr Noorimi hoped families of accident victims would seriously consider donating the organs of their loved ones although they would be going through pain and sorrow at their loss.