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ORGAN DONATION CONTINUES to be a rare event in Ireland, with 2014 seeing just 63 taking place after 2014′s roughly 30,000 deaths.
That is down from 86 last year.
2014 has been described as a disappointing one for organ donation and transplants, after a record year in 2013.
Preliminary figures suggest that there were 251 transplants in 2014, with declines in the number of kidney, liver and pancreas procedures.
The good news is that there was an increase in the number of heart transplants.
In total, 18 were carried out in 2014, the highest number in a decade.
The head of the office for Organ Donation and Transplant Ireland, Professor Jim Egan told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that people should be aware of when organs can be donated.
“Public awareness of the benefits of organ donation is extremely important.
“Internationally, there is downward pressure on organ donation because of efforts to reduce strokes and car accidents. It’s a very rare event that someone might die in circumstances that allow organ donation.
“We’d ask people to discuss their wishes with their family.
“Life can be one’s legacy.”
He added five new organ donation co-ordinators were starting across the country this month, aping part of the Spanish system, widely regarded as the best in the world.
Kidney Association concerns
Mark Murphy Chief Executive, Irish Kidney Association, described 2014 as a “disappointing year” for those awaiting a deceased donor kidney transplant.
He said that the association is concerned that, for the second year in a row, the target of 50 living donor kidney transplants was not achieved despite the availability of the living donors and potential recipients.
The IKA also raised concern about the fact Beaumont Hospital has not commissioned an extra operation theatre and said it is now short of transplant surgeons.
The HSE said in response that regarding Beaumont, additional funding was provided in 2013 to appoint additional urology surgeons, and an additional transplant surgeon. It said there were no successful appointments.
When the posts were re-advertised as Category C consultants in 2014, two urologists were appointed, but no transplant surgeon.
In addition there are now two vacancies arising from the retirement and leave of absence of two consultant surgeons. The hospital is actively pursuing a number of options to augment the existing team. The appointment of additional urologists with sessional commitments to Connolly Hospital will enable the transplant surgeons to prioritise transplants.
It also said that there were challenges in securing specialist nursing staff, and it expects to have the full complement of staff in place by early this year.
It has also prioritised transplant services within the overall urological workload.
The IKA congratulated the Mater Hospital on a record number of transplants (49), 31 lungs and 18 hearts.
But it said that liver transplantation is down by 20% on the previous year (44) which the IKA says “must also be a concern for St Vincent’s Hospital’s patients”.
It said that the Organ Procurement Service’s transition period “gives us hope that in future years the organ donor rates for Ireland will be far better than they are now”.
The IKA also said that the commencement of an audit of organ donor activity inside the country’s intensive care facilities is essential.
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There is ALWAYS more than one reason for an accident, blaming the driver entirely is wrong in my opinion. For instance, a reckless individual would have been noted by somebody else in the company at least once in the past 13 yrs. We will have to wait for the final report to know ALL the factors that caused this tragedy.
He woke up on thursday mornin as a train driver.. He went to sleep with a charge of reckless manslaughter of 78 people hanging over him..
His life is ruined no matter how guilty or innocent he is.. Along with all the other families who lost loved ones…
I wouldn’t make my mind up about any incident like this until a full technical report about the track/train was published,this seems all a bit too quick,he’s still in hospital FFS
Agreed. Let the man recover a bit first before charging at him with axes and burning torches.
This man should be put down after this act of negligence! Bragging on his Facebook page about goin 200 kph you would think he was a teenager. Hope he never sleeps again thinking of what he did
Have you forgotten the possibility that it may not be his fault ? An unlikely possibility maybe but angry mob mentality will do nobody any good.
I think there is the possibility that the Facebook page was a fake.
Have to agree with you there Patrick. And @ the journal.ie… why did you report yesterday that he had been charged with reckless homicide and now he faces “possible charges of reckless homicide”!? Same guy, two different qoutes??
I presume the driver didn’t get up in the morning and say ” I’m going to kill a load of passengers today” ……….
I have to agree there with the comment @ Journal. Come on guys – you’ve got a great news portal already without resorting to sensationalism. Leave that to the experts at Sky.
Hi there,
I don’t think any article yesterday said the driver was charged? There was one which said he had been detained since Thursday “for the alleged crimes of reckless homicide” but there was no mention of charges.
Hi Jennifer,
My apologies… It wasn’t here on The Journal that I read that. Got them mixed up. Damn, I hate my obsession with the news :)
Sorry Jennifer.
Ah, that’s what you get for reading your news elsewhere ;) No worries, guys.
From what I’ve read in the Spanish media, the accident occurred pretty much at the point where the train moved from AVE (high speed) lines with very advanced signaling that controls the trains’ speed and won’t allow a driver to exceed speed limits to a conventional normal speed line where signaling systems wouldn’t control the train speed but only advise the driver of it.
I think we need to wait for the dust to settle and allow the technical investigation to run its course before we jump to any conclusions about the driver.
The investigation will be very through and that’s a very high tech train so it will have onboard camera and data recorders.
They’ll go through this much like an air crash investigation.
Innocent ’til proven guilty, eh ? Oh, sorry, wrong way around for some on here. As others have said;, ignore the media speculation and wait for the full report. Media speculates to sell their product, regardless of fallout to any individual, the driver in this case. Benefit of the doubt, people, benefit of the doubt.
Innocent ’til proven guilty, eh ? Oh, sorry, wrong way around for some on here. As others have said;, ignore the media speculation and wait for the full report. Media speculates to sell their product, regardless of fallout to any individual, the driver in this case. Benefit of the doubt, people, benefit of the doubt.
have your say