Israel sees record number of organ transplants in 2016

ISRAEL HAYOM

Doctors at the Rabin Medical Center in Petach Tikva perform a kidney transplant [Illustrative]
| Photo credit: Courtesy of the Rabin Medical Center

A record 504 organ transplants were performed in Israel in 2016, a significant increase from the 433 in 2015, according to data from the National Transplant Center. The transplanted organs were taken from both the deceased and the living, giving new life and hope to terminally ill patients.

Despite the rise in organ donations and transplants in Israel, the center said that on the first day of 2017, 1,116 patients were still waiting for organs: 847 for a kidney, 104 for a liver, 63 for a heart, 89 for a lung, six for a heart and a lung, and seven for a kidney and a pancreas. In 2016, 122 patients, 11% of the patients on the waiting list, died before receiving the organs they needed.

According to the data, 274 operations were conducted in 2016 to harvest organs from the deceased, an increase of 12% over 2015 and an Israeli record.

The number of live donor transplants also jumped, with 222 kidney transplants in 2016, compared to 174 in 2015. Ninety-three kidney donors were relatives of the recipients, while 129 donors decided to give one of their kidneys to friends or strangers. A further eight liver lobe transplants from living donors were performed -- in most cases parents who donated to their children. Continue reading

from Donate Life Organ and Tissue Donation Blog℠ http://ift.tt/2jBGbBl