NRL star encourages organ donors
DANNY ROSE
February 25, 2010 - 12:09AM
AAP
The weight of the NRL has been thrown behind an effort to boost Australia's underperforming organ donation rate.
Australia trails other developed countries like Spain, the UK and USA when it comes to the rate of life-saving transplant operations done every year.
It's a problem that stems from an unwillingness among Australian families to talk about what should happen in the event of a loved one's death.
"Obviously at 25 you're not thinking about death too much but tragedies do happen," Parramatta Eels front-rower Justin Poore said, summing up the mood of many.
"I think all people should realise it's a big issue, and they should talk to their families about it.
"If I could help someone else by donating something of mine to help someone else have a good life, I'd consider it."
Doctors have just hours to act before organs, such as a heart or kidneys, are no longer viable for a transplant.
A family member must give consent before an organ donation can be made, even in cases where the person who has died was a registered organ donor.
At the start of this year, there were just over 1700 Australians on the official transplant waiting list.
Last year, just 247 people who died in hospitals donated their organs and this allowed often life-saving transplant operations to go ahead for 799 Australians.
"Far too many families are placed under the additional stress at the time of the death of a loved one because they do not know their wishes about donation," said Dr Jonathan Gillis, medical director at the NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service.
"Prior family discussion can make the process a little easier."
Families who consented to an organ donation also reported it was a "very positive ... legacy for life", Dr Gillis said.
Australia had just 11.3 organ donors per million people last year.
Figures from 2008 show Spain has roughly three times this rate at 34 donors per million people.
The US was next on 24 donors per million people followed by 23 in Estonia, 21 in Italy and 15 in the UK.
February 21 to 28 is Organ Donor Awareness Week.
© 2010
AAP
