In view of the long waiting lists for donor organs, experts at the University Hospital Dresden want to focus more on living donations. “In order to give as many patients as possible the chance of a donor organ, the organ donation figures, which have been extremely low in recent years and have continued to decrease in comparison to other European countries, must improve significantly,” warned Medical Director Michael Albrecht on Saturday.
According to the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation, the number of organ donations in Saxony in 2022 fell again last year after two years of positive trends. Nationwide, there were 869 so-called postmortem organ donors last year, a drop of almost 7 percent compared to 2021. According to the foundation, 8,500 people in Germany would be waiting for a life-saving transplant.
Hundreds of patients’ health deteriorates so dramatically every year that a transplant is no longer possible or they die while waiting because a suitable organ cannot be found in time. In the past, 74 heart patients, 47 lung patients and 324 kidney patients who were on the waiting list died.
Around 6,600 people alone need a new kidney. That is four times as many patients as transplants could be placed in Germany in the course of the year. In total, even a hundred thousand people are dependent on dialysis. Some of these patients can no longer be put on the waiting list because they have no hope.