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An altruistic chain that gives life runs through the Juan Ramón Jiménez and Infanta Elena hospitals. Up to 21 people from Huelva said “yes” to giving life in 2022 and, thanks to their solidarity gesture, a total of 43 organs could be transplanted. The value of these figures is none other than “how many lives can we save”, summarizes Huelva Information the Transplant Coordinator of the Infanta Elena Hospital, Jose Ignatius Ortizwho shows that “a donor who allows six or seven organs to be transplanted is just as valid as a donor who only allows one transplant”.

And Huelva is “very supportive”, they point out from the aforementioned hospitals, although they acknowledge that “our interest is that the figures increase more and more. we can’t relax“This is underlined by the Transplant coordinator of the Juan Ramón Jiménez hospital, Olive Dovewhich highlights that, “every time, we save more lives thanks to scientific advances and that we have more ‘yeses’ from the people of Huelva”.

Getting more affirmative responses from the population involves transmitting that “we want to donate,” says Ortiz. “Interestingly, becoming a donor is as easy as saying: I want to be“, he adds. That is why, if the issue of organ and tissue donation after death is discussed at home, everything is easier because at the moment the family has to make that last wish effective. On the contrary, ” If this issue is not addressed, the family has to make a decision thinking about what the deceased would want, a circumstance that complicates the yes, above all, because it is a difficult time for them due to the loss of a loved one.” .

Both Ortiz and Oliva encourage people from Huelva to “be donors, since no one is free from getting sick or from needing an organ to save their lives”; as well as to convey this message to the family, “as long as if a person expresses this desire, family will rarely object“.

The donating process

At this point, both coordinators want to transfer to the population all the phases that the donation and transplant process contemplates -It can be extended from 12 noon, at least, to two or three days-. “When nothing can be done for the patient, we receive the call from the doctor in charge when she considers that the patient is a potential donor,” explains Paloma Oliva, who, as coordinator, assesses the patient in order to determine if he is apt to donate.

José Ignacio Ortiz emphasizes that the transplant coordinators are guarantors and supporters that the entire process, from the moment the patient dies until he is a donor, It is done correctly and according to the Law. That is why one of its tasks is to validate that they do not have a disease that can be transmitted and that the organs “are well enough to overcome the stress of being in a deceased body, being extracted, being without blood supply for a while and, finally, enter another body”.

If the patient is optimal for this donation, the next step is the interview with family. “It is the hardest moment of the entire process,” Oliva and Ortiz agree. “We have a hard time because the relatives receive complicated news and we try to make them abstract and make a decision for which they are not prepared,” says Paloma Oliva. “We give all the time they need for them to decide and, regardless of what they express, we accompany them and we are with them at all times,” she adds.

That is why it seems easier when there is a prior wish of the patient, so the family comes to fulfill the willpower of the deceased “It is the last right of the person,” says Ortiz, who also remembers cases in which the family, without knowing the patient’s desire, says: “This person was good in life and probably wanted to continue being good at this time. “.

In this regard, the coordinator at the Infanta Elena recalls the case of a son who agreed to let his mother, now deceased, become a donor. she did it to reluctantlybut some time later he could not hide his gratitude because for him “it was a consolation that part of my mother helped another person to live. It is not a total loss.”

Once the donor or his family have agreed, the coordinators speak with the National Transplant Organization, the public body in charge of finding an optimal recipient for the organs that have been validated. They find the recipient and the organization begins so that he can be transplanted.

José Ignacio Ortiz explains that there are two criteria behind the distribution of the organ in question. On the one hand, the one related to the need or, what is the same, the person who needs it the most has priority; and, on the other, the closeness, because “sending it on a long trip can be detrimental to it”. Therefore, “we coordinate everything so that the body reaches those who need it most and with the shortest distance possible”, he stresses, while stressing that “children or people with some special peculiarity have priority”, while if there is a zero code (they need an urgent transplant so as not to die) there is no longer a waiting list because these patients are the priority”.

The surgical team from the hospital in Spain where the transplant will be performed arrives at one of the Huelva hospitals to extract the organ and/or tissues and then travel with him to the destination point.

Communication is constant with the family throughout the entire process with the aim of providing them with “all the information they need”, as well as for them to feel accompanied. “Our work does not end here”, explain both coordinators, “but we stay with the donor because he deserves all our thanks and respect, so we make sure that the body is restored properly so that it can be buried with dignity”.

From both hospitals a ‘feedback‘ in order to know if the organ or tissue has worked. “For us it is a rush when they tell us yes and so we pass it on to that nurse who has been working until the night or to that surgeon who has also gone out of his way for several hours so that everything turned out correctly”, they explain. “When you tell them that a kidney, a liver or a heart works, you give them an immense joy because it is the rewards a major effort“, value Oliva and Ortiz.

For doctors it is “very frustrating“not being able to save a patient’s life, but this type of act is a consolation, because “the effort is not in vain, we can help another person afterwards”. For both Paloma Oliva and José Ignacio Ortiz, working in this field of medicine is “brutal” because we carry out a medical act with which, through a donor, “we save one, two, or even five lives.” It is “magical”, summary.

Stories left by the profession

One aspect that also stands out is the stories with which they come across. “They are people and they mark you,” explains the coordinator at Juan Ramón Jiménez, who points out that “history stays and we remember each one of them.”

It is time to remember and, although it is presumed difficult to choose one among so many, they tell two stories that are still very present. One of them stars a ALS patient who wanted to donate. She was admitted knowing that she was going to die and “I was surprised by the determination with which she faced the end of her life,” recalls Ortiz. “Her organs from her helped us save three people,” she explains, as she acknowledges that “I still get goosebumps” as she shows off her arm with goosebumps.

Another of the stories that comes to mind is that of a young woman with bone cancer. “This girl was initially told that she either died or her leg was amputated” and yet, thanks to a femur transplant, she lives. And not only that. She has a very active life and she practices sports such as mountaineering or canoeing. Hence the importance, not only of the organs, but also of the tissues. “A single person who donates tissues can help thirty people”, summarize both coordinators. In fact, “in the hospitals of Huelva there are tissue transplants every day”, while organ transplants are carried out in Seville.

On the other hand, they insist on demolishing one of the beliefs that the population has about donation, the one referring to the fact that age makes this gesture impossible. “Perhaps the organ of someone very old does not have the optimal quality, but, surprisingly, they serve more than what is thought,” they emphasize. In this sense, the profile of the donor has been changing, while, when donations began, most of the people who donated were young people who died in traffic accidents and now this percentage is only around 5%. And the elderly with brain hemorrhages are between 70% or 80% of the donors.