Save 1 million lives

The main field of action of DTI (Donation and Transplantation Institute) is academic training and education. We believe that training doctors, nurses and more healthcare professionals in the best practices of organ donation and transplantation is the most effective way to expand worldwide these best practices. Once again, education is key.

In this case, better education translates to saving more lives. Teaching about organ donation and transplantation contributes to a better understanding of it and having more information about it, to creating consciousness about the issue, and to having more qualified people to lead as a transplant coordinator in their local hospitals. To promote education and training everywhere that we can, we want to facilitate access to these courses to healthcare professionals who find themselves in developing countries. That is why we created our project on GlobalGiving, to raise money to finance scholarships and, ultimately, save lives.

One of the recipients of the scholarship is from Colombia. In 2017, the population of Colombia was 49 million and there was a total of 437 organ donations. That means that there were 8,9 donations per million of population (pmp). From those donations, a total of 1.330 transplantations were possible to be carried out. According to IRODaT, that same year, there were 936 kidney transplants, 282 liver transplants, 75 heart transplants, 24 lung transplants, and 13 pancreas transplants. Despite these numbers, in 2018 the waiting list for an organ transplant had 2.500 patients’ names in it, according to the Colombian Ministry of Health.

The recipient of the scholarship, a Colombian Intensive Care doctor, came to Barcelona last February to complete the Advanced Transplant Procurement Course, based on sharing experiences between professors and participants, and applying the knowledge and these experiences to improve the results of organ donation and transplantation processes.  

Now, the doctor has come back to Barranquilla, Colombia, and the improvement has already begun. Even though Barranquilla is the city with fewer transplants in the country, the city has experienced an increase of 33% in transplants, according to Caracol Radio, a number that was never seen before.

Moreover, the doctor trained by DTI has started to meet with transplant coordinators from the region, and they thought out a plan of action in the city to start to implement the best practices. On the one hand, they have organized talks with the objective to train more healthcare professionals in organ donation and ME in the hospital and raise awareness between the nursing staff. They have already started in the emergency rooms, and they will continue in hospitalization and with staff from the Intensive Care Unit. So far, 35 people from different services are participating. On the other hand, a study about the donation potentiality of the hospital is being carried out.

The new donations to our project “Save 1 million lives” will contribute to giving two new scholarships to two healthcare professionals.

Links:

• DTI Community