KUCHING (Aug 25): Just 5,000 people or 0.2 per cent of Sarawak’s 2.4 million population have pledged their organs, said Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.

The Deputy Premier said more organ donation pledgers are needed as the lack of donors has meant long waits for patients on the organ transplant list, sometimes leading to their deaths.

He said donating organs after death is a noble deed as it can allow someone else a better quality of life and part of the donor can continue to live on.

“If you are willing to receive, you must be willing to give,” Dr Sim said after the state-level Organ Donation Awareness Week at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) today.

“Sometimes it’s very unfortunate, motorcar accidents and others leading to brain death happening to very young people. Imagine the heart continues on in another person.”

The Minister of Public Health, Housing and Local Government said with more organ donors, the specialised field of transplant medicine will also develop.

He pointed out the specialisation requires coordination, preservation of the organs, and police escort as they are racing against time to ensure the organs reach the recipient in time.

“We are not even near there yet because we have so few pledgers. I hope that with the awareness campaign, the number of registered donors will increase,” he said.

Aside from pledging as an organ donor, he said there is a need to instil a culture in hospitals to ask patients’ families regarding donating organs before removing life support.

Dr Sim explained that heart transplant patients could live for many years, while kidney transplant patients would not need dialysis for years.

On the waiting time for organ recipients, Dr Sim said as the number of pledgers in Sarawak is very small, recipients come under the Malaysian Transplant Programme.

“The patients are matched to the donors, and since the donors are not many, chances are lower and this is a very sad situation,” he said.

“If there are a lot of organs available, your chances to match will go up. You wait and before you got the chance to transplant, you die. That’s the reality in Malaysia.”

During the event, Dr Sim also launched the hospital’s organ procurement unit office.

Among those present were SGH director Dr Ngian Hie Ung and Dr Azlee Ayub, who represented the state Health director.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by IRENE C ON

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