This article is from page 3 of the 2006-03-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE annual Organ Donor Awareness Week campaign begins on April 1 with the aim of encouraging people to carry an organ donor card and give the gift of life.
There are currently more than 550 people in Ireland awaiting life saving organ transplant operations. “The amount of operations performed is dependent on the goodwill of the public and their decision to carry an organ donor card,” a spokeswoman for the Irish Kidney Association said.
On January 1 of this year, there were 1,364 people on dialysis with almost 1,150 of these on dialysis in hospital and 220 on dialysis which is conducted from the home.
In 2005, more than 200 lives were extended and saved by organ transplantation including heart, liver, kidney, pancreas and lung. In 2005, there were 129 kidney transplants, of which two were living transplants, as compared with 147 kidney transplants in 2004.
For the second year in a row there has been a record number of liver transplants with 57 being recorded in 2005 as compared with 45 in 2004. There was an increase in the number of heart transplants last year with 11 taking place in 2005 and just 7 in 2004. Eight lung transplant operations were performed on Irish patients last year, 3 of which took place for the first time in Ireland and the remaining, 5, in the UK. Five pancreas transplant operations took place in 2005 and these were done in conjunction with kidney transplants.
This donor card campaign is organised by the Irish Kidney Association, the national organisation which distributes the organ donor card in Ireland and promotes the welfare of kidney patients.