Donor Numbers Decline

By ANDREW, Kelly

New Zealand’s donor rate has plunged to a record low with just 25 people donating organs last year.

Australia and New Zealand Organ Donation Registry figures show the total number of organs donated by Kiwis in 2006 was four below the previous year’s 29 — already the lowest in more than a decade.

Before 2005 New Zealand had a rate of 10 donors per million people. The latest results put it at 6 per million people, which is poor by international standards.

Spain has the world’s highest rate at 35 donors per million, the United States has 21 per million, and Australia 10.

Organ Donation New Zealand clinical director Stephen Streat, an intensive care specialist at Auckland City Hospital, said that while the number of donors had declined, New Zealand had a relatively high number of recipients per donor.

“Most donors in New Zealand donate many organs and that reflects good donor treatment in the ICU.” The number of live donors was increasing, and last year there were 41 kidney recipients and 29 liver recipients.

Streat believed the fall in donors was due to fewer New Zealanders becoming brain- dead because of a drop in the number of serious road crashes and improved treatment in hospital for patients with brain injuries. Only patients certified as brain-dead — who can no longer breathe for themselves — can donate organs such as hearts and lungs. Live donors can give a kidney or part of their liver.

It was a myth that a drop in donor numbers was caused by doctors not asking families of potential donors, he said.

“Doctors do ask except when there are absolute medical contra- indications such as a transmissible disease in the potential donor, or the family does not accept that the person is dead,” Streat said.

“Our objective is to ensure that every opportunity where organ donation should be discussed is discussed.”

When family members decided they did not want their relative’s organs to be donated it was accepted good practice for doctors to respect their wishes.

There are 463 people on waiting lists for organ transplants, including 433 needing kidneys and five needing a heart.

Campaigner Andy Tookey, whose daughter Katie suffers from a rare liver condition and will eventually need a transplant, said falling donor numbers would add to New Zealand’s dire organ shortage.

He put New Zealand’s decline down to doctors not always asking families of potential donors, and families over-riding their relative’s wishes to be donor.

“There are 30,000 deaths a year, to get 25 donors out of that doesn’t sound right to me,” he said.

About 40 per cent of New Zealanders have indicated they are willing to be donors on their driver’s licence. About 55 per cent of families agree to their relative’s organs being harvested when asked. — Dominion Post

(c) 2007 Press, The; Christchurch, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.