KARACHI, July 4: The end-stage organ failure, a considerable clinical problem in Pakistan, leads annually an estimated 15,000 patients requiring renal replacement followed by some 800 seeking supplant of the diseased liver and 6,000 a new heart.
The above mentioned individuals keen to sustain life are largely denied of their right due to absence of law accepting brain stem death as an alternative criterion for death and state permission to remove organs from a brain dead cadaver, where donor card permits or family supports donation.
Medical experts said that the delay in the Cadaver Organ Donation Bill, pending with the legislature for the last eight years, was denying many people to have a quality life. They opined that the government should pass the bill for the benefit of the masses.
The end-stage kidney disease can be treated by long term dialysis, but this is quite an expensive option and unaffordable for majority of the people. As such no options exist for those suffering from end stage liver and heart disease, other than transplantation. Treatments like liver dialysis are still experimental and prohibitively expensive, as are bridge devices for heart.
In view of the high prevalence of liver diseases, particularly Hepatitis, there was a great need to develop a viable liver transplantation programme, the experts opined.
This will not only save thousands of lives, but also help improve critical care facilities, as liver transplanted is technically one of the most demanding surgeries.
The situation seeks concerted efforts to accelerate awareness about hepatitis and end-stage liver disease together with more emphasis on public education about cadaver organ donation after clinical death.—APP
