The Transplant Coordination Service at the General University Hospital of Alicante celebrated the National Day of Organ Donors on Tuesday, a day they say that is very significant in commemorating this great gesture of solidarity by society and by families.
Since the start of the Transplant Program in the Alicante hospital, more than 1,000 people have donated their organs (54 of them living kidney donors), which has saved the lives of more than 2,300 patients.
“Today we want to pay a heartfelt tribute to more than 1,000 donors and their families who, in the most painful time of their lives, proved to be so generous, giving life to other people”, said the head of the Transplant Coordination Service, Dr. Carlos de Santiago.
The celebration included the laying of a floral offering in front of the ‘Monument to the Donor’, which is located in the hospital complex, and in which representatives of the medical staff involved in the donation and transplantation process, all took part.
They included the Director of Nursing of the Alicante Health Department-General Hospital, Juan Félix Coello; Dr. Carlos de Santiago; the head of the Liver Transplant Unit, the surgeon Gonzalo Rodríguez Laiz; Marian Miralles, Transplant Coordinator Nurse, and Miguel Rojo, AETHCV delegate in Alicante.
The General Hospital de Alicante is well known for its high acceptance rates . “Donations by Alicante society is higher than 95%, which allows life giving to a large number of people,” said Marian Miralles, transplant nursing coordinator, who added that “a donor of six organs can contribute 60 years of life to patients who need an organ to be able to continue living”.
The success of the Transplant Coordination Service is based on the “Alicante Model” of a family interview, “which provides emotional relief, until the family can take control of their situation, which reduces the pain that every loss causes, and it is an important factor in the decision to go ahead with the donation”, they said.
All this has meant that the Alicante Hospital has been one of the National and International Reference Centres for the training of Transplant Coordinators for more than 25 years. More than 3,000 health professionals from Spain and other countries have been trained by the teaching team led by the Transplant Coordination at Alicante Hospital.
