Organ donor number at a low level

Organ donor number „stabilized at a low level“

01/21/2015

More than 10,000 critically ill people are currently waiting for a donor organ in Germany. In contrast, not even 900 organ donors were in the past year. The number of donors has declined sharply in recent years, but has now become apparent „stabilized at a low level“.

Over 10,000 patients are waiting for a donor organ
The number of organ donors in Germany seems to stabilize again after a significant decline. As the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation (DSO) reported in a report by the news agency dpa on Tuesday in Frankfurt, in 2014 864 people nationwide after their death to organ donors, 2013 there were 876 organ donors. In previous years, donor numbers had plummeted by 13 and 16 percent following manipulation of the waiting lists. Axel Rahmel, medical director of DSO, said that the numbers are now well „stabilized at a low level“ have. According to information from Eurotransplant, 10,585 patients are currently waiting for a donor organ in Germany.

Germany far behind in European comparison
According to the DSO, 10.7 donors came to one million inhabitants in Germany last year. The Federal Republic ranks thereby in the European comparison in the lower third. According to the European Commission, Spain is in the lead with 35 donors per million inhabitants. In total, 2,989 organs were donated in Germany in 2014. That was 46 less than last year. However, 3,169 organs were transplanted. This is because they are spread across Europe from the Dutch suffering. The year before, there were 3,248 transplants.

Manipulation of organ allocation
In 2012, so-called transplant scandals caused a stir. At that time it had become known that two physicians of the University Hospital Göttingen falsified documents and preferred to have their own patients receiving donor livers. Later, manipulation of organs was also reported from other hospitals. One consequence of the scandals was that the transplantation law was extensively reformed. „Since then, many things have developed in the right direction“, The President of the German Transplantation Society, Bjorn Nashan, recently spoke at the DSO Annual Congress in Frankfurt. In the meantime, manipulations are punishable, the controls sharper and the process of organ donation more transparent.

campaign „did not bring the desired success“
After the introduction of a decision-making solution, the health insurance companies wrote to all insured persons and informed them about organ donation. However, the German Foundation for Patient Protection is not satisfied with the costs of this campaign: „Never have the coffers spent more money on advertising“, explained Chairman Eugen Brysch of the dpa. „That did not bring the desired success.“ A survey by the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) last year revealed that 68 percent of Germans agreed to donate their organs after death, yet only 28 percent of Germans have an organ donor card. On the occasion of a canceled organ donation at the end of last year in the Bremen area, it was feared that this scandal could also cause declining donor numbers. Under the headline: „But no brain death: Organ donation stopped“ It had been reported that mistakes had been made in brain death diagnosis. The donor was already lying on the operating table with his belly cut open. (Ad)