Media Release

RMH doubles organ donation rate

1 November 2007

RMH has more than doubled its organ donation rate in the first year of the National Organ Donation Collaborative, a project across 23 Australian public hospitals which aims to increase organ and tissue donation.

Overall, there was a 39 per cent increase in organ donation across the participating hospitals, and a 25 per cent increase nationally.

At RMH, 11 patients became organ donors, compared to five the previous year. This enabled surgeons at hospitals across Australia and New Zealand to perform 45 solid organ transplants on the best-matching patients, including heart (4), lung (8), kidney (19), liver (10) and pancreas (4) transplants, giving their patients a second chance at life.

RMH is a major renal transplant centre – during 2006/07 it performed 89 kidney transplants, including 52 from live donors and 37 from deceased donors.

Many other patients donated tissues include eye tissue, skin, bone, heart valves and bone marrow.

One organ donor has the potential to improve the health and quality of life of up to 10 other people. Less than 2 per cent of all hospital deaths occur in such a way that organ donation is medically possible.

RMH Organ Donation Clinical Nurse Consultant Elizabeth Treasure said: “At RMH, we are working hard to increase staff awareness and understanding of organ and tissue donation as well as improve our identification of potential donors, and support to families who are considering organ and/or tissue donation.”

RMH is actively involved in promoting awareness of organ donation to the wider Melbourne Health community, through Australian Organ Donor Registry posters and registration forms available around the hospital, foyer displays, an organ donation promotion on RMH on-hold messages, articles in Melbourne Health publications, and staff payslip messages saying “think” about it, “talk” about it, and “tell” your family and friends your wishes.

Also, Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation plaques thanking RMH for its efforts on organ donation, are displayed in the Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit. The foundation commemorates a seven-year-old girl who donated her organs and tissue.