The Virgen Macarena University Hospital has successfully coordinated and executed its first vascular tissue donation, that is, arteries and veins. A donation that, along with the other donated tissues, will help improve the quality of life of more than one hundred people sick. In some patients with severe arterial problems in the lower limbs, the only option to avoid amputation is to dispose of human arteries.
Vascular tissue donation is a type of donation in which the Center’s Transplant Coordination Unit has synchronized more than 20 health services and in which a very complex surgical technique is applied in which the participation of the Cardiovascular Surgery service of the Sevillian hospital has been fundamental.
However, the success of this intervention has its origin in the donor and family altruism. “Families in such difficult times continue to show their most supportive face,” affirm members of the aforementioned Transplant Coordination Unit of the Virgen Macarena University Hospital, who act as a link between the donor and the person who receives the organ and tissue.
In this case, it was the donor himself who, prior to his death, declared to donate when nothing else could be done to save his life. For this, there is an Advance Vital Will Registry (RVVA) in which anyone can subscribe to the clinical course of action at a certain point.
«Signing an RVVA is as simple as go to the information desk of our center or call Salud Responde, where our professionals will inform you about how to decide what you want to do when you can no longer communicate it to us. Said signature may be revocable and modified», Warns Miguel Ángel Baena, a nurse member of the aforementioned Unit.
Spain has been world leader in organ, tissue and cell donation and transplantation.
