The Doctor José Molina Orosa University Hospital, attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, has registered a total of 52 organ donations since its accreditation as an extraction center in 2007. Throughout these 15 years, the different teams of the Lanzarote center have carried out these extractions, most of them multiorgan, which have allowed, thanks to the solidarity of the families of the donor people, to save or improve the quality of life of many other patients.
Since obtaining the necessary accreditation to carry out organ extractions in 2007, the Hospital has obtained a total of 157 organs: 96 kidneys, 44 livers, six lungs, six hearts and five pancreases. In addition, during that period of time, the extraction for transplantation of 62 corneas has also been carried out.
All these extractions have been carried out through the coordination of numerous services and multidisciplinary teams necessary to guarantee the success of the procedure from the detection of the potential donor to the transplantation: the authorization of the families, certification, performance of all analytical and diagnostic tests and, finally, the extraction of the organs and their subsequent shipment to the transplant center.
The trend in organ donation during these years at Molina Orosa has remained stable, although the years 2008 and 2019 saw the highest number of donations with eight and six donors, respectively.
The hospital's transplant team, headed by the intensive care medicine specialists Priscila Carcelén and Tamara Cantera and the ICU nurse Penélope Gómez, is responsible for coordinating all the teams involved from beginning to end in the process.
The performance of extractions and, subsequently, transplants, is possible thanks to the coordination of an extensive network of professionals, with great dedication to the program, which includes, among others, the services of Emergency, Intensive Medicine, Anesthesia, Clinical Analysis, Microbiology, Cardiology, Neurology, Urology, Ophthalmology, Neurology, Radiology, Pathological Anatomy, Neurophysiology and Surgery. All these professionals, and the participation of non-health personnel, play a fundamental role in completing the development of this vital procedure for many people in the Canary Islands and the rest of the country.
To carry out organ extractions, it is common to have the active collaboration of the clinical services of the reference hospitals where each organ will be transplanted. On occasions, it is also necessary to transfer professionals from those hospitals with technical equipment such as ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation System) to carry out the extraction in asystole, actions that are carried out under the supervision of the coordination and transplant teams of the Canary Islands, whose work is essential to guarantee the success of these interventions.
No donors, no transplants
Currently, to facilitate organ donation, the person who wishes to be a donor can make an Advance Declaration of Will (MAV), a document that contains the instructions and options that must be respected by the health personnel who attend to the grantor regarding the care and treatment of their health; the provisions regarding the destination of their body and the donation of organs and tissues and for which an appointment can be requested at 012 (928 301 012 or 922 470 012).
The importance of organ donation lies in the fact that this procedure is essential to adequately treat diseases whose only therapeutic option to save life or improve its quality is to perform a transplant.
