Lack of organ transplant ops ‘may have been fatal for some’

THE number of life-saving organ transplants carried out fell by two-thirds during lockdown.

Doctors fear some of the patients have died due to the lack of services.

Figures from NHS Blood and Transplant show this year there were 265 transplant operations from April 1 until May 31, compared to 702 for the same period last year

Some centres closed completely, others ran a skeleton emergency service and many patients were told they had been temporarily suspended from the waiting list.

All living donations were cancelled due to the potential risk of catching the virus.

The number of lung transplants fell from 40 at the same time last year down to five, liver transplants dropped from 149 to 73 and the number of heart transplants dropped from 22 to 20. Kidney transplants dropped from 361 last year to 165 this year.

Experts say the NHS staff and equipment being given over to focus on treating coronavirus, together with the added risk of carrying out transplant operations on patients where infection control could not be guaranteed, partly explain the fall in transplant operations. Natasha Tiwari, 34, a singer from Stoke Newington, north London, has been told she may need her leg amputated because her kidney dialysis strips calcium from her bones which have not been able to heal. Ms Tiwari, pictured, has been in a cast since she broke her leg in a fall in January 2018 but the bones in her ankle have not mended due to this side effect of dialysis.

She said: “I was about to crowdfund for a living donor, but I’ve had to cancel that option. My chances of getting a transplant are so much less because of this and I fear I will lose my limb.”

Ms Tiwari’s kidneys failed in 2002 due to a rare allergic reaction to an insulin drug she was given fortype 1 diabetes.

Professor John Forsythe, medical director for organ donation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “We know this remains a very worrying time for anyone waiting for an organ transplant.

“We are pleased we have been able to keep some forms of transplantation open for highly urgent patients.

“We are now seeing more transplant units opening back up, with 12 of 23 kidney centres now open and we now expect more to open in swift succession.”