UHNM staff thanked for potentially life-saving organ donation support
Wards and departments across University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) have been thanked for the role they play in potentially life-saving organ and tissue donations.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the NHS Organ Donation Register, UHNM’s team of specialist organ and tissue donation nurses spent Organ Donation Week visiting areas across the Royal Stoke University Hospital including the Critical Care Unit, Emergency Department, and Staffordshire Children’s Hospital at Royal Stoke, to thank staff for their support and involvement in organ and tissue donation and retrieval.
Since 1 April 2024, UHNM has had 16 completed organ and tissue donors, including four hearts, one pair of lungs, twelve livers alongside thirty kidneys. Patients have also gone onto donate corneas, which are used to restored peoples eyesight. As well as for the purposes of transplantation, patients and families can opt to donate organs and tissues for the purposes of research.
Clare Neeson, Specialist Nurse in Organ Donation said: “Due to its size and status as a Major Trauma Centre, the UHNM is regarded as one of the larger donor-generating centres nationally. Our team of four specialist nurses coordinate and facilitate the process of organ donation retrieval in patients who are end of life in areas such as Critical Care, A&E, as well as our Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care Units. The process can take as little as a day, from identifying potential donors and gaining support from their families, to finding suitable recipients and arranging and mobilising specialist surgical teams.
“Our wards and departments at UHNM work are very supportive of organ and tissue donation and work hard to facilitate this when possible, so during Organ Donation Week we wanted to say thank you to them for their ongoing support. We’re very fortunate at UHNM that all our key areas have such a streamlined approach when it comes to referrals and the process of organ donation, right through from support from our key areas, radiographers and cardiologists to dermatology and mortuary staff.
“As a team of nurses we would like to say thank you so much to UHNM colleagues for all their hard work and support. We know it’s a really complex and difficult process, and sometimes it’s an emotionally driven path that we go down.”
Since the creation of the NHS Organ Donor Register in 1994, more than 100,000 people in the UK had their lives saved by an organ transplant, including more than 16,000 people in the Midlands.
Lisa Chapman’s son Josh was one of those who had confirmed his decision by signing the Organ Donor Register. He would have also been celebrating his 30th birthday this year but was tragically killed in a road accident when he was just 24.
Josh, who was a self-employed tiler and a new dad at the time, fell from a moving car and suffered a catastrophic brain injury. He went on to save the lives of six people after his family gave their support for organ donation at UHNM.
His mum, Lisa, a Business Development Manager from Lichfield, said:
“The donor team came to us after we’d been given the dreadful diagnosis that Josh wasn’t going to survive. They asked us if we knew that Josh was a registered donor and we didn’t as it’s not something that we, as a family, had had conversations about in any detail.
“My kids always knew I was on the register as I always carried the old kidney donor card and I hope that’s how Josh decided for himself to be a donor. The records showed that Josh had signed up twice, including when he changed his address on his driving licence.
“We just thought 'if that was his decision, who are we to go against it?' This was the last thing that Josh could do that he said he wanted to do. It gives you a glimmer of something positive.”
Despite donors like Josh, there are still 1,400 patients in our region still waiting for a transplant.
Clare said: “Only one per-cent of people who die in the UK each year die in a way where organ donation can be possible. There are criteria that needs to be met before we can consider organ donation as an end of life option, such as being intubated and on a critical care unit.
“A change in the law now means that unless a person has made their wishes known we would presume they would not have any objections to becoming an organ donor and saving the lives of others through this gift. We would still look for their families and loved ones support.
However, no-one is automatically added to the Organ Donor Register. You still need to confirm your own decision. Your family will still be consulted before organ and tissue donation goes ahead as we would still look for their families and loved ones to support your decision.
“Therefore, its more important than ever for people to think of their own end-of-life wishes and make it known to their loved ones so they are in support of it.”
To register your organ donation decision, visit: www.organdonation.nhs.uk call 0300 123 23 23 or use the NHS app In England.