ORGAN AND TISSUE DONATION ADVOCACY. Dr. Francisco Sarmiento, program manager of the Philippine Network for Organ Sharing, shares the overview of organ donation in the country to medical students, practitioners and mediamen at the Region 1 Medical Center in Dagupan City on Tuesday (June 25, 2019). Sarmiento urged the attendees to sign up as organ donors. (Photo by Hilda Austria)
DAGUPAN CITY -- The Philippine Network for Organ Sharing (PhilNOS) and Philippine Network for Organ Donation, the implementing arms of the Department of Health, have encouraged Pangasinenses to be organ donors.
Dr. Francisco Sarmiento, program manager of PhilNOS, said over 100 patients are waiting for donors to pursue their transplants.
Sarmiento said most of them are candidates for kidney, liver, esophagus and pancreas transplantations.
“The average waiting time for the candidates is three to four years for them to find donors,” he said in an interview Tuesday on the sidelines of an Organ and Tissue Donation Advocacy Campaign at the Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC) here.
Sarmiento disclosed that with more organ donors, the cost of transplant might decrease.
“If there are many who are donating, then the procedure (transplanting) will be frequent like in the law of supply and demand, the cost will possibly go down. But with no organ donation, then there will be no transplantation,” he added.
At present, kidney transplant costs PHP1 million to PHP1.5 million with post-transplant monthly cost amounting to PHP30,000 to PHP40,000, while liver transplant costs PHP6 million.
Sarmiento explained there are three types of organ donors --the living related donors; living non-related donors; and deceased donation.
There are 25,000 who signed up as living organ donors, as he asked for more donors to sign up.
Sarmiento also assured security and privacy of organ donors’ list.
“There are misconceptions about organ donation. They said potential organ donors are targets but this is not true. Our data base for living organ donors is secured and it is not available on the web,” he said.
Sarmiento noted that financial neutrality is being implemented in organ donation, which means that donors and recipients are not entitled to any monetary reward.
“When God gave us kidneys, did he ask for payment? So, why would we? Rather, organ donation will save more lives,” he said.
He added they also implement the “Filipino-first-policy” wherein Filipino candidates for transplant are priority recipients of donated organs over foreigners. (PNA)
