Covid-19 impact on organ transplant rates revealed as Donor Awareness Week is launched

There are around 600 people on waiting lists for organ transplants including heart, lung, liver, kidney, and pancreas at any one time, as the number of transplants reduce due to challenges presented by Covid-19.

This fall has been seen over the past two years across all the national transplant programmes during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, 206 transplant operations were carried out in Ireland in 2021 (16 more transplants than in 2020).

This activity in very challenging times could not have taken place but for the generosity of 65 deceased donors and 35 living kidney donors, the Irish Kidney Association said. 

Organ donor families and grateful transplant recipients from around the country are backing the Organ Donor Awareness Week 2022 campaign which will take place from 23-30 April and is organised by the Irish Kidney Association in association with the HSE’s Organ Donation Transplant Ireland. 

Featuring on the campaign poster are photos of 32 people from all walks of life and of all ages, who between them are enjoying over 410 years of extra life which is thanks to the families of deceased organ donors who gifted them organs including hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, and pancreas.  

This year’s awareness campaign is built around the theme Share your Wishes about organ donation #ShareYourWishes. The key message is that members of the public can play their part in supporting organ donation for transplantation by ensuring that their families know their wishes. i.e., they ‘have the conversation’.

Sharing your wishes when you are in good health makes it a less stressful decision for your family in the event of them being approached about you being a potential organ donor.

Ms. Carol Moore, Chief Executive, Irish Kidney Association said: "Two years ago, the 2020 Organ Donor Awareness Week campaign was postponed and ultimately cancelled at short notice when Covid-19 reached our shores. Last year the pandemic was still with us.

"This impacted on the Irish Kidney Association’s ability to promote organ donor awareness ‘on the ground’ and the overall annual Awareness Week campaign. With Covid-19 still lingering, we have had to adapt awareness campaigns and while government restrictions have lifted, many people at high-risk of infection, including immune suppressed transplant recipients and vulnerable patients in organ failure, continue to observe caution and double down on their safety measures," Ms Moore said.

"We greatly value the role of pharmacists in helping to spread the message about the importance of organ donation by displaying the campaign poster and carrying stocks of organ donor cards.  Patients on transplant waiting lists live in hope that organs will become available to them and a strong public show of support by requesting organ donor cards builds that hope.

"The uncertainty associated with waiting for an organ transplant is difficult as the future is unknown and there is the knowledge that in order to be given the Gift of Life another family will be grieving the loss of a loved one," she said. 

Individuals who wish to support organ donation are encouraged to keep the reminders of their decision available by carrying the organ donor card, permitting Code 115 to be included on their driver’s licence or having the ‘digital organ donor card’ App on their smartphone. 

Organ Donor Cards can be requested by visiting the website www.ika.ie/get-a-donor-card or  to your phone, phoning the Irish Kidney Association on 01 6205306 or Free text the word DONOR to 50050