Organ donation is gaining popularity in Saudi Arabia

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia- Organ donation is gaining popularity in Saudi Arabia with the issuing of five million cards for potential donors in various parts of the Kingdom.

Organ transplant specialist, Dr Hassan Abdullah Al Khanani, told Saudi-based Okaz newspaper on Tuesday that he expected further increase in the number of donors with the opening of an organ transplant center next month in Jeddah that would be followed with two centers in the Eastern and Northern Provinces. This will bring the number to five centers in the country.

“We have distributed five million cards since 2010 and the demand for those cards is big because of awareness campaigns by many organizations,” he said, while highlighting that more donors are required as there are 15,000 patients who need kidney transplant, but only 5,000 fit donors are available.

He said that there are 500 patients waiting for liver transplant. He said that the waiting list could be terminated if hospitals could inform the centers about all brain dead cases that are estimated of 1,000 cases annually.

Source: Xinhuanet

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