'Dad has gone from Sick to Superman'

Organ donation doesn't simply save lives, in the sense of keeping people (barely) alive, but it allows them to lead much fuller, more normal lives, as this inspiring story of a father swimming from Alcatraz to shore to celebrate five years since his double lung transplant shows. It's a great example of how much of a difference a transplant can make to the recipient's quality of life, but also comes with important reminders about the limits of what transplants can achieve "The current average survival period of a lung recipient in the US and Europe is five years. Statistics say that the current 10-year survival rate of a lung transplant patient is 30%, meaning that only one out of every three patients will celebrate their 10th anniversary". Still, even five more years of healthy life is a considerable achievement, and especially valuable for someone like Gavin Maitland with young children.

Donor Registration on Facebook

I was interviewed on Facebook's drive to increase organ donation a couple of times by a Canadian journalist (the results can be found here and here).

I've just seen this report, suggesting that there did seem to be a boost in donation rates following the Facebook initiative. I've not read the actual academic article, but I assume the authors at least attempted to show causation, rather than mere correlation.

Transplanting Disease

It's well known that organ transplants can save lives. It is, sadly, also true that they can cost lives - and not only through surgery. I reported last year on the case of a young woman who died of lung cancer after receiving a smoker's lungs. In the US, one man has died and three others are receiving treatment after being given organs from a donor who died of rabies in 2011. Again, this is a tragic case, but - lest donation rates be harmed by negative publicity - it's worth stressing the concluding statement that the benefits of organ donation generally outweigh the risks: even those who die due to an infected transplant may well have died without it.

Double Arm Transplant for Iraq Veteran

I recently posted on the UK's first hand transplant. That's a worthy story in itself, but one American Iraq veteran and quadruple amputee recently received a double arm transplant. Medical advances really can be life-changing, as well as life-saving. As ever though, there are serious questions about who gets to benefit given resource scarcity. These distributive questions are primarily moral questions, as are certain questions about how resources (such as the supply of donor organs) can be increased. (Since I first saw this, the story has been picked up by the BBC here.)