"The medical possibilities of organ transplantation are so advanced that we could help many people if enough donor organs were available," says Professor Dr. med. Axel Haverich, Head of the Transplant Center at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and Director of the MHH Clinic for Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery. "For the benefit of the patients an opt-out solution would, therefore, be the best option!" The personal argument and the decision for or against an organ donation after death is an act of solidarity. Experiences from European countries in which the opt-out solution is used, show that ten to 20 percent more organs are donated.
At present, 9,400 seriously ill people in Germany are waiting for a donor organ, including 1,134 at the MHH, including 64 children and adolescents. For too many of them, the donor organ comes too late. Surveys of the Federal Center for Health Education show a high willingness to donate by the population (84 percent), but only one in three has an organ donor card. Usually, therefore, the relatives are asked to decide in the interests of the deceased.
Opt-out solution relieves relatives
"In the case of a potential organ donation, the relatives are concerned about the deceased and often have to consider for the first time whether the organs should be donated or not, and what the potential donor would have wanted," adds Dr. Andreas Tecklenburg, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of MHH. "This decision will be removed or facilitated by the op-out solution."
MHH transplant center with patient advisory board
The MHH is the largest transplant center in Germany, and it even ranks among the best lung transplant centers worldwide. In 2018, the MHH doctors transplanted 30 hearts, 176 kidneys, 74 livers, 116 lungs and eight pancreases to children, adolescents and adults.
The focus is on the patients: in the autumn of 2019, the co-determination of patients in a patient advisory board was decided to be firmly anchored in the structure of the center. Today, there already is a regular exchange with the patient association representatives in order to identify the need for necessary information and support, to identify optimization potential and joint projects, and to discuss the initiatives of the Federal Ministry of Health with the patient associations.