Attaining life’s transformation through organ transplantation
The demand for organs for transplantation far exceeds the supply of donations available
A General Surgery consultant in Abu Dhabi encourages organ donation.
“There exists a significant shortage of organs for patients suffering from end-stage organ failure. The demand for organs for transplantation far exceeds the supply of donations available. A selfless act, organ donation saves up to eight lives. It has the potential to offer a second chance at life to someone suffering from organ failure,” Dr. Rehan Saif said on Friday.
“This may be the only hope for a beter life. Organ donation nurtures compassion. It allows people to work together for a common cause. Donor families can find comfort in knowing that their loved one’s generosity transformed someone else’s life,” he added.
The Burjeel Abdominal Multi-organ Transplant Surgery director also pointed out that Medical Science, through organ donation, “advances.” The cases mandatory hospital multi-disciplinary teams study and atend to, “strengthen their knowledge of diseases and perfect surgical procedures.”
With over 400 kidney-liver-pancreas transplantations performed in India, the UAE, and the UK, Saif stressed that while incidences of failed organ transplantations occur, technically known as “primary non function, this is prevented by a detailed assessment of the donor organ.”
The interview was conducted following the April 23 discharge of Fatima Ali, 66, from the Burjeel Medical City (BMC), where she had been confined since April 1 for the scheduled liver transplantation.
“Fatima is recovering well with a healthy functioning liver grat,” Saif said.
He described the surgery, assisted by a 22-man multidisciplinary team, as “complex and extremely challenging; mainly due to the degree of portal hypertension, which makes the removal of the diseased liver difficult. It posed a high risk of severe bleeding. However, we achieved it safely. Only one unit of blood transfusion was used.”
Hospitalrecordsshowedsaifrecommendedliver transplantation to Ali in 2023, then diagnosed with livercancer,arisingfromadeterioratingliver,caused by autoimmune hepatitis, whereby Ali’s immune system instead continually atacked her liver cells.
Necessary protocols have to be observed for the procedure, which, according to the Clinical Gastroenteology and Hepatology website, totalled 34,944worldwidefortheentire2021withthe“highest number of transplantation per million” gathered in South Korea, USA and Western Europe.
According to the “New Development and Challenges in Liver Transplantation” published in the “Journal of Medicine,” two million succumb to any form of liver issue across the world each year. Two-thirds are at the “end-stage,” the last recourse of which is transplantation.
In the case of Ali and in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Hayat (Life) Organ Donation Programme of the UAE’S Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP), as per the country’s “Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Law” (UAE Law No. 25 of 2023), BMC “empanelled” her case into the “Deceased Donor Liver Transplant Programme” especially so that “she did not have a suitable living family donor and had to wait for a suitable deceased donor organ.”
Ali recalled: “The idea of undergoing liver transplantation was mentally and emotionally draining. Dr. Rehan explained to me everything and how it would change my life.”
Through all the waiting time that lasted for half a year with three alerts for the surgery in between, Ali was carefully monitored. The three notifications remained as such for the supposed donated liver was found to be an unsuitable “match due to various clinical reasons.”
Thewaitingendedinmarch.thetransplantedliver was from a “23-year-old man with traumatic brain injury who had sustained severe brain stem dysfunction and was declared brain dead by neurological criteria.” The Mohap-national Centre for Organ Donation (MOHAP-NCODTC) and Transplantation Centre approached the deceased’s family for the possible donation. They consented.
Ali,thefirstbmcdeceaseddonorlivertransplant case, and her family were grateful.
From the “UAE Organ Donation Transplantation Congress 2024” in Dubai last January, interviewed MOHAP-NCODTC director Dr. Maria Gomez cited World Health Organisation data regarding “one in five men and one in four women up to 60 years old at high risk for chronic kidney disease.” Delegate Southern Philippines Medical Centre (Davao City)organ Transplant Services Unit head Dr. Maria Theresa Bad-ang underscored the Declaration of Istanbul against global organ trafficking.