Organ donors bring new life

NST: The new year began with blessed relief for two end- stage renal failure victims, who received the kidneys they had fervently prayed for.
Both are now on the road to recovery and a normal life, thanks to a 67-year-old donor.
The National Transplant Resource Centre’s chief national transplant co-ordinator, Dr Lela Yasmin Mansor, said the two had waited five years for a donor.
"The year started well for the two, with the cadaveric donation. We hope to get more such organs this year," she said.
Last year, 13 people between them donated 10 kidneys, one heart, two livers, six heart valves, 22 corneas, two bones and a lung, benefiting more than 43 people.
Between 1976 and 1996, there were 12 donors, 1997 (five), 1998 (nine), 1999 (six), 2000 (16), 2001 (24), 2002 (30), 2003 (25) and 2004 (16).
"We plan to be more aggressive this year to get more donors. Our target will be those in rural areas," she said.
Dr Lela said talks would be held for health clinic staff nationwide on organ donation so that they could help spread the word.
She said private hospitals had also shown interest in helping the centre obtain cadaveric organs.
"The response has been encouraging and we hope families will come forward to donate the organs of their brain-dead relatives, especially those involved in traffic accidents."
Last year, 7,442 people pledged to donate their organs, bringing the total number to date to 91,669.
Dr Lela said the majority of pledges came from Chinese (58,861) followed by Indians (20,629) and Malays (9,386) and others 2,793.
Selangor topped the list with the highest number of organ pledges (17,224) followed by Penang (16,127), Johor (15,545), Federal Territory (12,772), Perak (10,655), Negri Sembilan (3,592), Kedah (3,702), Malacca (2,477), Pahang (2,446), Sarawak (2,502), Sabah (2,108), Kelantan (913), Terengganu (671), Perlis (259), Labuan (35) and Putrajaya (22).
Dr Lela said 62,190 people had pledged to donate all organs and tissue.
Meanwhile, the 12th report of the Malaysian Dialysis and Transplant Registry said the dialysis prevalence rate had quadrupled over the last 10 years, increasing from 108 per million population in 1995 to 452 in 2004.
There were a total of 2,650 renal transplants reported to the registry between 1975 and 2004; 1,587 grafts were functioning at the end of 2004.
There were 42 new renal transplants done in the country in 2004 and 132 overseas.