Can I be a donor?

It is relevant to have knowledge of what it means to be an organ donor and / or fabrics. The person interested in being a donor must express your will, whether you want to be a living or deceased donor. Anyone can decide to be an organ and tissue donor and reveal it to their relatives, but there must be a legal document that proves it. Likewise, we can express whether we want to donate all organs and tissues or specify which ones we want and which ones we do not want to donate.

According to the Law that regulates transplants in Spain, we are all potential donors if in life we ​​have not expressed otherwise. However, if when the time comes there is no express wish of the deceased, it is the family members who must pronounce on the possibility of donation and for this there must be a informed legal consent. It would be the case, for example, of an unexpected imminent death in a serious accident. If the individual is a potential donor who has not expressed his or her desire to be one, then it is their family members who decide, assuming that they make a decision at a time of maximum sensitivity.

Differences if the donor is living or deceased

Just as a personal conviction is required to be a donor, it is necessary to meet inexorable requirements that will be different if the donor is living or deceased. Likewise, if there is a desire to donate on the part of a deceased person and, for some reason, the transplant is rejected, the donation can be used for research, for example.

In case of being a deceased donor

You can be a donor at any age with the exception that, in the case of deceased minors and / or disabled people, the will of the people who have parental authority will be respected (Law 30/1979). They can donate all organs and tissues. It must be that there is death either brain or asystole and also must die in a hospital center that can preserve or ensure the vital maintenance of the organs to be donated until their extraction. Likewise, the cause of death must be known at the time of death (certain causes can lead to the transplant being rejected).

In case of being a living donor

The express desire to donate must be expressed and some medical requirements essential and unavoidable: being of legal age, enjoying good physical health, intellectual fulfillment and ensuring good health after donation. The living donor is subjected to a multitude of tests to corroborate its optimal health status. Communicable diseases must be ruled out. Of course, a living donor can only donate some organs (if they are paired organs you can donate one of the two, for example, lungs or kidneys. If it is an odd organ, you can only donate a part, for example, of liver. Likewise, it can be.

The Spanish model

Spain is one of the countries with the highest donation rates in the world. Donations are always made in accordance with the principles of altruism (disinterestedly offering a good to other people, even when said decision threatens one's own good) and equity (same possibilities for different candidates, without considering secondary criteria). The therapeutic procedure is financially covered in its entirety by the National Health System and assumed by the Autonomous Communities where the transplant is carried out.

Taking into account the high demand for organs in our environment, it is necessary for the population. In this sense, we must know that around 10% of patients on the transplant waiting list die while waiting for the organ to receive.

For a person to be a candidate for transplantation, it must be that they suffer irreversible damage to one of their organs (liver, heart, lung, intestine, pancreas and kidney) and that there is no other therapeutic alternative. That is, it has no more possibilities. When a candidate receives an organ, it means giving him a second life. Family Medicine Specialist