In 2017, every day, six people donated their organs.
The Diplomat. 12/01/2018
Spain continues to be the world’s leader in organ donation and transplants after breaking, in 2017, a new record with 2,183 donors (46.9 for every million population) and a total of 5,259 transplants. The European average is of 21.5 for every million population and in the United States of 30.8.
The data provided by the National Transplant Organization (ONT in its Spanish acronym), which were presented yesterday by the Minister of Health, Dolors Montserrat, and the organization’s director, Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, show that our country continues to lead organ donations and transplants in the entire world, as it has been doing in the past 26 years, with a system that has served as model to many countries.
Last year, the activity of the ONT in renal, hepatic and pulmonary transplant registered all-time highs and, in general, it has increased in all types of transplants, except for that of pancreas, which has fallen. The number of transplants was the following: 3,269 renal (+9 %), 1,247 hepatic (8 %), 304 cardiac (8%), 363 pulmonary (18 %), 70 of pancreas (-4 %) and intestinal (+100%).
In the last three years, the donation rate per million population has increased by 30%, and the data mean that, in 2017, every day, six people have donated their organs and 14 transplants have been carried out.
According to the data made public yesterday, the waiting list is reduced for all the organs, except for the pancreas, and goes from a total of 5,480 patients at the end of 2016, to 4,896 at the end of 2017, of which 74 are children. Last year, a total of 140 child transplants were carried out.