Hassle to fulfil pledges

NST: A family of six is reconsidering their pledges to donate their organs since being given the runaround by a government hospital last week, when a member died.
The parents and siblings of Leong Wing Fatt (picture), 38, fear their relatives may have to undergo the same inconvenience in the event of their deaths.
Wing Cheong, 40, the brother of the electrician who died on March 2, said Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia staff did not live up to their promises regarding his brother’s organs.
He said they had promised that harvesting Wing Fatt’s organs would not be a problem when he was rushed to the hospital on March 1.
But he claimed they were totally unprepared the next day when he died.
He claimed they only began looking for the organ donation form, performing a blood test to ascertain his blood group, after he died.
Wing Cheong said hospital staff could have saved the family time and inconvenience if they had done these things the day before.
HUKM staff finally managed to harvest the deceased’s corneas, hand and leg bones, tissues and heart valves. Wing Fatt’s organs eventually went to 30 people.
The businessman said the hospital wanted to charge him the full amount for the blood screening when his brother was a regular blood donor.
"I felt the way they handled the whole process was bad," he said. "The staff should know the procedures and should have been prepared to take the organs on his death."
He said the family had been saddened by the lack of urgency shown by hospital staff.
Wing Fatt suffered a massive stroke about 9.30pm on March 1 at his house in Jalan Sungei Besi and was rushed to HUKM.
At the hospital doctors informed the family Wing Fatt had suffered a brain haemorrhage. They were told he had only a five per cent chance of survival.
Wing Cheong said it was then that the family got together and decided that Wing Fatt’s organs should be donated if he died.
National Transplant Resource Centre chief national transplant co-ordinator, Datin Dr Lela Yasmin Mansor, acknowledged the lack of awareness on organ donation among the staff of general wards.
"Doctors and staff in the hospital’s intensive and coronary care units know the procedure for organ donation better than those in general wards.
"We want to improve the situation."