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ORGAN WOE: 'If Jonah is having trouble with anyone coming forward, you've got a whole lot of issues - it's not an easy thing to make New Zealanders donate parts of their bodies.'
MARTIN HUNTER/Sunday Star-Times | |
Lomu: face of organ woe 22 February 2004
By DEIDRE HENZELL
Shuffling giant could benefit from health minister's donor action plan
Sweeping changes to organ donating are imminent as the nation reels over rugby legend Jonah Lomu's failing health while he waits for a life-saving kidney transplant.
The 28-year-old has become the public face of the plight of those waiting for a transplant.
Tomorrow Health Minister Annette King will present Cabinet with an action plan aimed at cutting this country's average 30-month transplant waiting times. Lomu, who began dialysis last year after progressive kidney failure, expects to wait three to four years, partly because of a lack of Pacific Island donors.
New Zealand has one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the developed world.
Annette King said Lomu would be an excellent role model for promoting organ donation. "If Jonah is having trouble with anyone coming forward, you've got a whole lot of issues - it's not an easy thing to make New Zealanders donate parts of their bodies," King said.
The Sunday Star-Times understands the plan King wants approval to present to Parliament will include:
* The establishment of a national organ donation agency to run the country's donor programme.
* Consultation on whether legislation is needed to ensure family members and doctors comply with donor's wishes to donate body parts after death.
* A public education campaign.
The legendary former All Black was given a standing ovation as he stiffly shuffled on to the stage at Thursday night's Halberg Awards in Christchurch.
Lomu could be confined to a wheelchair if a donor is not found soon.
Donation rates among Maori and Pacific Islanders are almost negligible: of the 389 dead donors in the past decade only four were Pacific Islanders and 13 Maori. Ethnicity of donors matters because of differing tissue types.
Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand's renal transplant advisory committee chairman Graeme Russ said Lomu's walking difficulties were from toxins in his blood, causing weakness of muscles in his legs and feet.
Dialysis removed most toxins but it was unknown why some people suffered severe nerve damage, he said. Most people regained normal leg function after a kidney transplant.
Russ said education was needed to encourage all ethnic groups to donate organs.
"Jonah Lomu would be an incredible role model and way to educate those racial groups who aren't donating," Russ said.
The problem was exacerbated because Maori and Pacific Islanders were more likely to need organ transplants with a disproportionate number suffering renal disease and on dialysis.
About 350-400 people are waiting for a kidney transplant while another 100 are awaiting other transplants.
Last year, 40 people received kidneys from dead donors and 24 from live donors.
It is not known why so few Maori and Pacific Islanders donate organs, but cultural reluctance is believed to contribute - some Maori believe it is important to bury their dead whole.
Last November, the health select committee recommended major changes to organ donation as the result of a petition by Auckland man Andy Tookey, whose daughter faces death without a liver transplant.
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