Plea to boost donation of child organs

BEREAVED parents were urged last night to consider donating their children’s organs after it emerged the rate had not gone up significantly in years.

Donations from adults have risen by a fifth since 2004, but the total from children has remained static.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was ‘heartbreaking that hundreds of children and babies are waiting for an organ’.

Mr Hancock, who is backing a new NHS campaign to boost the donation figures from under-18s, spoke after it emerged that only half of families approached following the death of a child consent to their organs being used.

There are 177 children on the transplant list. Last year, 17 died waiting for a donor. Organs from 57 children resulted in 200 transplant operations in 2018, but this is barely up on the 55 child donors in 2014.

It can be hard to find hearts for toddlers and babies because of their size. Plans for a new system in England next year – in which everyone is deemed a donor unless they opt out – will not apply to children.

Mr Hancock said: ‘I understand how difficult it is to contemplate losing a child, let alone what happens afterwards.’