New Zealand Herald - 5 August 2004

Google me: A desperate shortage of lifesavers

05.08.2004
By JULIET ROWAN

Jonah Lomu and Grant Kereama wanted to keep it a secret.

Instead the revelation that the former rugby great had received a new kidney from his radio host mate became the story of the week.

The high-profile tale of generosity was a reminder of the lengths some people will go to help a friend.

It also focused attention on the plight of patients waiting for organ transplants and the need for more donors.

New Zealand has one of the lowest organ donor rates in the developed world - about 10 donors a year from each million people.

A report published in June showed seven patients had died waiting for new livers since the start of last year.

A Google search on "organ donors" shows New Zealand is not alone in lacking donors.

In the United States, about 70 people a day receive organ transplants, but a further 16 die because not enough organs are available.

The Bush Administration has tried to remedy the shortage by urging high school students to become donors and to state their wishes on their driver's licences.

In Britain, more than 5500 people need a new kidney, heart, lung, liver or other organ, but fewer than 3000 transplants are carried out each year.

The site says that last year, nearly 400 people died while waiting.

The statistics make depressing reading, but the web also reminds us of how far we've come in a short time.

The first successful kidney transplant was performed 50 years ago, in 1954, and the first heart transplant took place in 1967.

Medical advances now enable the kidneys, heart, liver, lungs, pancreas, small bowel, cornea, heart valves and bone to be transplanted.

Preserving major organs for transplant is still difficult. Hearts and lungs last four to six hours, livers 12 to 24 hours, and kidneys 18 to 72 hours.

Jonah Lomu, like many kidney transplant recipients these days, had the benefit of a live donor.

For anyone contemplating giving part of themselves to a loved one, Living Donors Online outlines possibilities, including live lung, intestine, nerve and skin donations.

But most transplant organs come from recently dead bodies and it can be difficult to persuade people to agree in advance to donate their organs when they die.

Fortunately, humour can help, like the story of electrician Martyn Gwilliam.

"Gwilliam had always joked that, when he died, he wanted to donate his corneas so he could 'keep an eye on the talent'.

"Following his death in a motorcycle crash, his wishes were carried out - but both the recipients were young women."