Calls for organ donor opt out

Dr Kumaar wants to see an opt out system introduced in the island

A Jersey Doctor is calling for a change to the organ donation scheme to put the emphasis on people opting out instead of running an opt in register.

Dr Ajay Kumaar is a kidney specialist at the Jersey General Hospital and will be lobbying the island's Health Minister for a change in the law.

Ten people were waiting for organ donation in Jersey last year.

In the UK, it's thought around 1,000 people die unnecessarily each year while waiting for a transplant.

"People will argue that Doctors would not try hard enough to save people's lives but being at the forefront of medical care I would contest that.

"Life is precious to all of us but there is a point where you cannot be saved and there is little point in losing valuable organs. It would be much better if somebody else benefited," said Dr Kumaar.

In August last year ten people in Jersey were waiting for organ donations and one of those people was 'Thomas', who was waiting a number of years for a new kidney.

Dialysis had been keeping him alive but the dialysis came with a number of unpleasant side effects.

"People find this hard to believe but when I had the transplant at Guy's Hospital and woke up from the aesthetic I knew that I instantly felt better.

"Some of the symptoms I'd had which had caused me lots of trouble just disappeared overnight. It was quiet extraordinary," said Thomas.

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Steven

This has to come in.

I fully respect the right of a person not to have organ used, but is there not the right to life being lost because the currect system requires a relative in grief to be asked permmission.

Better one dead person is missued in error that 10 live sick people die because someone was not asked.