Tasmanians are ‘generous by nature’ for organ and tissue donation

When Jean Rosevear attended a kidney health event and learnt about organ donation, she did not realise she would be making a decision of her own a few weeks later.

“Peter [my husband] was perfectly healthy, but unexpectedly had a brain bleed at the back of his head,” she said.

“He was flown to Hobart, but during that time he had another bleed, which made his brain dead.”

Ms Rosevear said it all happened “horrifically quickly”.

“In the hospital when we were discussing the process of organ or tissue donation, I knew that he wanted to,” she said. “I had his card.”

Ms Rosevear said she was impressed with the professionalism of the specialist nurse that assisted them through the process.

“I believe, from my point-of-view, that the [organ donation] process in Australia is so watertight.

“I felt very confident and assured that Peter’s donation would be well considered and checked out thoroughly, so that the people who would receive would be receiving an organ or tissue that was viable.

“The process to actually ask all of the questions, that took maybe a day. By the time we finished the questions, the nurse said she felt that she knew us both very well.

“The results came back, and I think particularly because of Peter’s age, that even though they had strongly considered and discussed and questioned me and my son over 24 hours, that his organs were not viable.”

Tasmania has the highest rate of organ and tissue donation in Australia. 

State executive officer Davin Hibberd said not all intended donors and their families are able to proceed with donation.

IN OTHER NEWS:

He said some of the reasons donation may not go ahead could include a patient becoming unstable during the process, suitability becoming compromised by the presence of cancer or transmissible diseases, age resulting in an exclusion of some organs, rare blood types not matching with waiting recipients, patient size and tissue types unable to be matched, or there being no suitably matched recipients.

In Tasmania last year,  five intended donors and their families provided consent and were supported through the process, but were unable to proceed with the donation.

“I know that we did everything we possibly could do to support Peter’s decision,” Ms Rosevear said.

“To believe in the end that a person who we believe is not going to survive could actually help many other people in the community I think is so powerful, but, it’s something you need to get your head around.”

In 2017, Tasmania supported 19 organ and tissue donations, which is a 73 per cent increase from 2016.

DonateLife state medical director Dr Andrew Turner said this translated into 36.5 donors per million population – the highest rate ever achieved in Australia.

“We are fortunate that the Tasmanian community is very generous by nature,” he said.

“We gratefully acknowledge all Tasmanian organ and tissue donors and their families for the incredible gift that donation provides to the community, to save and improve the lives of people waiting for a a transplant.

“Having trained donation specialists in our hospitals is critical to achieving these outcomes, to support donor families through the incredibly challenging time when they are asked to provide consent to honour their loved one’s donation wishes.

“There are 1400 Australians wait-listed at any one time for a transplant, and a further 11,000 people on dialysis.”

Mr Hibberd said for growth in organ and tissue donations to continue in Tasmania and on the mainland, there needs to be a clinical and community focus. That means potential donation would be raised by trained donation specialists, and donor registration could be increased by more frequent discussions.

“When family come together, take the opportunity to talk about things that can challenge us at times.”

He said Ms Rosevear’s preparedness in being confronted with such an “unexpected and very tragic event” demonstrated the importance of the conversation.

“It’s critically important that this decision is made with transparency, that it’s well informed.”

DonateLife aims to improve organ and tissue donation and transplantation outcomes throughout Australia. For more information, visit register.donatelife.gov.au.