Menorca organ donors make 219 transplants possible

Seventy organ donors from Menorca have helped make 219 transplants possible across Spain since 2001. On Tuesday, 22 September, Hospital Mateu Orfila marked 25 years since the island’s first organ retrieval with a tribute to donors and their families. Health staff, patient groups, relatives and members of the public attended the event.

The hospital’s intensive care chief and transplant co-ordinator, Dr Ramón Fernández-Cid, looked back on the programme’s progress and paid special tribute to donor families. Dionisio Pons also spoke about donating a kidney while alive to his wife, Coloma Marqués, who received four kidney transplants before her death several years ago.

The operation that began the programme

Menorca’s first multi-organ retrieval took place on 3 September 2001. The donor was a 53-year-old woman in intensive care after a brain haemorrhage.

More than 20 professionals took part. They retrieved a liver, two kidneys and two corneas, helping five people.

No transfer to Mallorca needed

The programme grew from the opening of an intensive care unit at the former Hospital Verge del Toro in 1999. Two years later, the centre was approved by the National Transplant Organisation, the Balearic Islands Health Ministry and the National Health Institute to retrieve organs and tissue.

That approval meant retrievals could be carried out on Menorca rather than moving potential donors to Mallorca. It also allowed people to exercise their right to donate from the island itself.

The transplant co-ordination team was also recognised at the anniversary event, which was held under the motto “25 years giving life”.

Topics: Health · Culture · Politics

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com