Have a heart-to-heart about your organ donation decision

This week is Organ Donation Week and it’s a great reminder to speak to your loved ones about your organ donation decision, so they can support your wishes after your death. Organ donation is when healthy organs and tissues from one person are transplanted into another person. You can choose to donate some or all of your organs and tissue, or you can choose not to donate.

Organ donation law in Wales

In 2015, Wales became the first UK nation to introduce the opt-out system. This opt-out system meant that anyone aged 18 and over – who have either lived in Wales for at least 12 months or died in Wales – are considered to have agreed by default to be an organ donor when they die.

The exceptions to this are if someone has recorded a decision not to donate before their death, or are in one of the excluded groups, such as: those under the age of 18, people who lack the mental capacity to understand the new arrangements and take necessary action, visitors to Wales, those not living in Wales voluntarily, and people who have lived in Wales for less than 12 months before their death.

The new law in 2015 was created to increase the number of people donating their organs, help increase the number of transplantations and save more lives. In the four years following the law change, the consent rate increased from 58% to 77%, the highest consent rate of all the UK nations.

Why is it important to speak to loved ones about your organ donation decision?

When you pass away, your family will be consulted by clinicians on whether or not you consented to being an organ donor. However, even if consent was provided, your family holds the authority to overturn this decision.

The discovery of a loved one’s decision to donate post mortem can create significant distress to families, with hundreds of potential transplant opportunities missed each year as a result of these challenging and delaying conversations.

As a result, families often overturn the individual’s decision to donate, where they have not been made aware beforehand of their relative’s wishes, leading them to uncertainty and a very difficult choice to make.

It is therefore extremely important that you a heart-to-heart and make your decision known to your family, regardless of state, so that if the time comes, your loved ones can feel prepared, and your decision to give the gift of life to another will be upheld and honoured. 

How to register your decision

Once you have spoken to your loved ones and made your decision, you can register your choice on the NHS organ donation register.

What different forms of organ donation are there?

There are two forms of organ donation: living and deceased.

A living donation is when a person donates all or part of an organ for transplantation to another person. These can be anonymous donations, or from a family member or friend.

A deceased donation occurs when an organ is removed from someone once they have died and transplanted to a living person.

Which organs are commonly transplanted?

Several key organs are commonly transplanted for a variety of health issues or from damage, where a healthy organ replacement can often save lives.

Heart – When the heart fails, it’s often due to weakening of the heart muscles or blockages of the blood vessels leading back to the heart. Cardiomyopathy and Coronary Heart Disease are the two major reasons for heart transplantation.

Lungs – Vital to the flow of oxygen around the body, once damaged or impacted by disease, people will fall ill rapidly. Lung transplants are often needed for people suffering with Cystic Fibrosis, COPD, raised blood pressure and scarring of the lungs. 

Liver – There’s no long-term substitute for the Liver. Living with liver failure can mean poor quality of life and short life expectancy. The most common liver problems can be caused by liver cancer and other liver diseases.

Kidneys – Kidneys balance the amount of fluids and minerals in your body and create hormones. People have to spend hours attached to a dialysis machine to replace these functions when their kidneys aren’t working. A kidney transplant would allow the individual a life free from dialysis.

Pancreas – Those living with diabetes may not respond well to insulin treatment, in which case a pancreas transplant will help greatly. Other pancreas transplants occur due to hypoglycaemia or kidney failure due to kidney disease.

Small Bowel – The bowels are crucial to the absorption of nutrients from what we eat and drink, so any complications may result in the patient being placed on drip. These complications can occur due to digestive disorders, extreme Crohn’s Disease and short bowel syndrome.