In 2020 in France, 26,001 people were registered on a transplant waiting list. Of these, 4,417 were treated and 933 died from lack of organs.
Three days after World Organ Donation Day, October 17, the association for organ and tissue donation of Eure-et-Loir (Adot), nurses from the Louis-Pasteur hospital, in Coudray and four young students at the CCI de Chartres, organized an awareness and information day in the hospital lobby.
Who can donate their organs?
“Everyone is considered an organ donor as long as they are not registered on the national register of refusals”, explains Didier Lagrange, president of Adot 28. At present, only 300,000 people are registered on the register, all the others are then possible donors.
Is there an age limit for organ donation?
Anyone can donate their organs, regardless of their age, physical condition, pathologies and illnesses.
“Obviously, when there is a transplant, you match the age of the donor to that of the recipient, or if the person removed had HIV, then so does the recipient. “
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How to express his refusal?
You can refuse to donate your heart, but agree to donate your liver or cornea. “The refusal site offers this possibility”, specifies Didier Lagrange.
To remove an organ from a deceased person who had expressed the wish, it is necessary that the brain death is noted. “That is to say that the person is dead, but that his organs continue to function”, develops Gaëlle Lavis.
At the Chartres hospital, for example, this only concerns nine patients per year, ie twenty-seven people who can be transplanted “because a donor can save an average of three lives. The Chartres hospital is a donor center but not a grafting center. The Chartrains and Euréliens who need a transplant are transferred to hospitals in Paris, or in Tours.
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Does the family have a say?
Gaëlle Lavis, nurse at Louis-Pasteur hospital, explains: “We systematically ask the family the question as soon as we know that the deceased person is compatible to donate their organs. In the most frequent case, if the person is not entered on the refusal register, the family, who has not been informed, does not know what to do and ends up saying no in order not to take risks. We lose chances of saving lives. If the deceased had positioned himself before his death, then his will will be respected. “
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After the death of a donor, what is the procedure?
Organs are harvested from the donor within minutes of death. The medical staff then spend an average of six hours to perform the transplant with the recipient. “Families sometimes fear that this will influence the mortuary ritual or that it will be against their religion. However, in the three great monotheistic religions, namely Judaism, Islam and Christianity, the representatives spoke out in favor of organ and tissue donation. “
The appearance of the body of the deceased is respected. After the mortuary toilet, the body is dressed and returned to the family.
White Floremia
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