Transplant patients urge families to discuss organ donation

LVAD and transplant awareness walk set for 28 February at the Sea Point Lighthouse, urging families to talk about organ donation. On Saturday, heart transplant recipients, patients supported by mechanical heart devices, doctors and families will gather in Cape Town for an awareness walk with a message that is both simple and urgent: talk about organ donation before it is too late. Behind the event is a sobering reality.

According to the latest available data from the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation, South Africa’s deceased organ donor rate is roughly 1.3 donors per million people — among the lowest globally. The walk is expected to take place at the Sea Point Lighthouse between 10 and 10.30am. For patients waiting for a new heart, that statistic is not abstract.

It represents time measured in uncertainty. The awareness walk is organised by the heart and mechanical heart transplant team atChristiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital. Organisers say the goal is to encourage families to discuss their wishes regarding organ donation, as final consent rests with relatives at the time of death.

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Dr Willie Koen, head of the hospital’s heart and mechanical heart transplant programme, said the gap between the number of patients who could benefit from transplantation and the number of available donor organs remains significant. “Over the past almost 27 years our team has implanted around 400 patients with either donor hearts or mechanical hearts. Unfortunately, this is only a fraction of the patients who could benefit from these lifesaving procedures,” Koen said.

“Our demand for donor hearts outweighs the supply by far.” The LVAD and Transplant Awareness Walk will take place on 28 February at 10am from the Sea Point Lighthouse, calling on families to support organ donation and help save lives. For some critically ill patients, a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) — a mechanical pump that helps a weakened heart circulate blood — can provide temporary support while they await transplantation, and in certain cases longer-term assistance. Koen said the technology allows many patients to leave hospital and return home, regaining a near-normal quality of life while waiting for a donor heart. But he stressed that mechanical support does not replace the need for organ donation.

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