Speaking at the national launch of Organ Donation Awareness Week 2018, Mark Murphy, chief executive of the Irish Kidney Association, said that since the first kidney transplant was performed in December 1963, Ireland has made great strides in the diagnosis and outcomes of patients with organ failure through organ transplantation.
Last week, many involved in organ donation and transplantation came together for the official launch of Organ Donation Awareness Week 2018. The annual life-saving awareness campaign is organised by the Irish Kidney Association and supported by ODTI (Organ Donation and Transplant Ireland) and runs from 31 March to 7 April. The campaign was officially launched at the Mansion House in Dublin 2 by the Honourable Catherine Byrne MP, Minister of State for Health Promotion and National Pharmaceutical Strategy, who herself has a personal interest in organ donation. Special guest at the launch was presenter Claire Byrne, who has volunteered to be the 2018 Organ Donation Awareness Ambassador and will feature on posters distributed across the country and in a national radio advertising campaign encouraging people to talk to their families about organ donation.
This year marks several important milestones for the Irish Kidney Association.
· 40th anniversary of the organization, founded in April 1978.
· 40th anniversary of the Kidney Donation Card, which over the years has evolved into the Organ Donation Card.
· 60 years since the first dialysis treatment was performed in Ireland in May 1958.
55th anniversary of the first kidney transplant performed at the old St Vincent's Hospital, St Stephen's Green. The transplant was performed on a 21-year-old Dublin man, Ted Tobin.
“We've come a long way since the Irish Kidney Association was founded. In 1978 there were only three centres in Ireland where people with kidney failure could receive dialysis treatment. Today there are 23 across the country,” Mr Murphy explained.
2017 was a record year for organ transplantation for Ireland, with a total of 327 organs transplanted into 321 patients, including 23 paediatric transplants.
Around 3,500 transplant recipients in Ireland are enjoying extended lives thanks to the gift of organ donation, and at the end of 2017 there were 524 people on various transplant waiting lists for heart, liver, kidney, lung and pancreas.
“Advances in medical science, combined with the success of our transplant team and the generosity of our deceased and living donor families, have led to this incredibly positive outcome. We hope this gives hope to those waiting for a transplant and to the many others with failing organs hoping to receive a life-saving transplant,” Murphy said.
Murphy added: “The selfless and profound generosity of Ireland's 99 deceased donor families resulted in a total of 260 deceased donor transplants being performed in 2017. The 260 deceased donor organ transplants consisted of 141 kidneys, 62 livers, 16 hearts, 36 lungs and five pancreases.” A record 51 living donor kidney transplants were also performed by Beaumont Hospital's transplant team. Last year a record 311 transplants were performed across Ireland's three transplant hospitals. Of these 311 transplants, Beaumont performed 12 paediatric kidney transplants from both living and deceased donors at Temple Street Hospital.”
Mark Murphy said: “We are aware of 16 HSE-funded transplants involving 15 Irish patients in the UK – eight paediatric liver transplants, two paediatric lung transplants and one paediatric heart transplant – a total of 11 paediatric organ transplants. Three were kidney exchange transplants (kidney swaps) and one combined heart-lung transplant. For the first time in 39 years, transplants have overtaken dialysis with 2,074 people on dialysis, one less person on dialysis than in 2016.”
Professor Jim Egan, Director of the HSE's Office of Organ Donation and Transplantation Ireland (ODTI), said: “I would like to congratulate the Irish Kidney Association on its 40th anniversary and the National Kidney Transplant Service at Beaumont Hospital, which recently completed its 5,000th kidney transplant.
In 2017, Beaumont Hospital performed a total of 192 kidney transplants, including 141 from deceased donors and 51 from living donors, a record high.
Mater Misericordia Hospital performed 16 heart transplants and 36 lung transplants in 2017. The 36 lung transplants matched the record set two years earlier.
St. Vincent's University Hospital performed 62 liver transplants and five combined pancreas and kidney transplants in 2017.
The key message of Organ Donation Awareness Week is that families need to continue to talk to each other about organ donation and visibly demonstrate their intention to donate by carrying an organ donor card and having code 115 on their driver's licence.
Organ Donor Awareness Week also serves as a fundraiser for the Irish Kidney Association. During the week (31 March – 7 April 2018), the association's volunteers will be in the streets and shopping centres across the country distributing organ donation cards and selling “forget-me-not” emblems, brooches, pin badges, pens and shopping cart discs. All proceeds will go towards the Irish Kidney Association's support for dialysis patients and those lucky enough to receive a kidney transplant. The Irish Kidney Association's charitable activities include providing free accommodation for patients and their families in 13 double bedrooms on the grounds of Beaumont Hospital and holiday centres in Tramore and Kerry, patient support, advice, counselling, financial assistance, rehabilitation, promoting health through sport, and providing information and education to kidney patients through its headquarters in Dublin and a network of 25 volunteer branches across the country.
The free information file that accompanies your organ donor card is available from the Irish Kidney Association and also from pharmacies, GP practices and Citizens Information Offices across the country.
Organ donor cards are also available by calling the Irish Kidney Association on 01 6205306 or freetexting the word DONOR to 50050. Visit the website www.ika.ie/card
