U.K.: Pensioners' Organs Used In Transplants

LONDON, England (The Sunday Telegraph), November 18, 2007: Doctors are having to use organs from pensioners because of a critical shortage of donors. An investigation into the deaths of seven patients after heart transplants at the Papworth Hospital in Cambridge this year concludes that surgeons were forced to use substandard organs. The findings will bring renewed calls for Britain to move to an opt-out ­system of organ donation, whereby people are presumed to have consented to donation unless they ­register their objections. Earlier this year, the Government's Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said this would be the only way to prevent the deaths of about 500 people each year while they are waiting for a suitable donor organ. Managers at the Papworth suspended their heart transplant programme earlier this month after seven out of 20 transplant patients died – a mortality rate of 35 per cent. Normally only one in 10 patients are expected to die within 30 days of the operation. The hospital, one of five units in the country that carries out heart transplants, called in the Healthcare Commission to investigate. Sources have told The Sunday Telegraph that the age of donors, and therefore the quality of the organs transplanted, was found to be the central issue in the deaths. The length of time the organs spent being transferred between the donor and the recipient, when it is degrading due to a lack of blood pumping through it, was also a factor, the report will say. Some detailed recommendations are also made about surgical practice, including having two consultants look at each organ being considered for transplant, to ensure that they agree on whether it is of high enough quality. Data from UK Transplant, the agency which runs the organ donor register and transplant programme, revealed that 10 hearts were used in transplants in 2006/7 that were from people aged 60 or over.Another 41 were taken from donors aged between 50 and 59. The average age of an organ donor has risen from 40 to 43 in the past 10 years. Chris Rudge, director of UK Transplant, said surgeons had little choice but to use the best organ available or more patients would die. Heart transplant surgeons would prefer to use hearts from donors in their 20s but the majority – 37 per cent in 2006/7 – were taken from people who had died aged between 35 and 49. Mr Rudge said: "This is a general issue and relates to all organs. There is a desperate shortage of donors. "Every single transplant unit is facing the same shortage of donors. It is a really difficult dilemma for surgeons. There aren't enough ideal organ donors aged in their 20s; even a donor in their 30s is less than ideal. "We are having to use the organs that are available, knowing that they are not all from ideal donors." Carol Smith, 50, from Canvey Island, Essex, was one of seven people who died at the Papworth this year within 30 days of being given new hearts. Her family have demanded a full inquiry into her death on May 14 and said they were considering taking legal action. Her daughter, Rachel Russell, a student nurse, said: "We have still got unanswered questions and Papworth hasn't answered anything." By Rebecca Smith © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2007