The Montecelo Hospital, in the Pontevedra-Salnés health area, ranks as the sixth hospital center in Galicia for organ extraction. Last year, a total of 21 organs and one bone tissue were removed in brain-dead patients, most of them in patients over 65 years of age.
These figures were presented this morning by Dr. José Luis Martínez Melgar, head of the Transplant Coordination Office of the Health Area. The medical team removed two lungs, five livers, eight kidneys, six corneas, and one bone tissue. For Martínez Melgar, behind these “modest” figures, there is something more important, donors, recipients and families aware of organ donation.
These numbers reflect that the Pontevedra-Salnés Health Area contributed 34.8% of this activity to the entire Galician community and 43 patients from our area were implanted in Santiago and A Coruña, the only two centers that do so in Galicia.
The organs most in demand are the thoracic, that is, kidneys and livers and, in many cases, the age is below 65 years, as explained by Dr. Melgar. Another case is corneal donation, which can save a person, for example, from a burn to one eye. Medical expertise makes this possible.
Pontevedra sent two lungs by plane to other communities for an emergency 0 case, when the patient cannot wait more than 72 hours to receive an organ. Finally, highlight the data at the Galicia level. In our community, a total of 136 organs have been extracted in 2019, compared to 116 in 2018, 17% more.
In Galicia 354 transplants were performed last year, the same data as in 2018, there was not one more, not one less.
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