Organ donations in Australia: Victoria blitzing nation, new figures show

VICTORIA is blitzing the nation in organ donations, new figures show, as the state’s selfless donors and world-leading specialists race ahead in the quest for renewed life.

MORE than one Victorian a day is now being saved with an organ transplant as the state’s selfless donors and world-leading specialists race ahead in the quest for renewed life.

New figures show Victoria has blitzed the rest of the nation in terms of organ donations, with almost 30 per cent of all Australian transplants in 2017 occurring thanks to a deceased Victorian and the generosity of their families.

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Last year Victoria set a national record with 389 recipients receiving a lifesaving gift from 148 deceased donors.

Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy praised the community’s generosity and the dedication of the state’s healthcare workers.

“Our doctors consistently go the extra mile, looking at every possible way to support organ donation and save lives — and I’m incredibly proud that their hard work has led to Victoria achieving the highest number of organ donors by any state on record,” she said.

Across Australia 1402 recipients received a second chance last year from 510 deceased donors, a slight decrease on the 1447 lives transformed in 2016.

A further 273 living donors gave a kidney or partial liver to save or improve the life of another Australian, while 9600 people benefited from eye and tissue transplants.

However, the latest report on Australian transplants shows that, while some states recorded rates of 36.5 donors per million people in 2017, others have dropped to just 12.2, leading for calls for jurisdictions to work more closely together.

But with a national average of 20.7 donors for every million residents, the federal minister responsible for the Organ and Tissue Authority, Ken Wyatt, said reforms that began in 2009 to overhaul the national donation program were increasingly saving lives.

“The reforms have seen the number of deceased organ donors more than double and the number of Australians receiving a transplant increase by 75 per cent. This is clear progress, but there is much more to be done,” he said.

Last year, the authority oversaw the 10,000th transplant from a deceased donor since the reforms began.

Mr Wyatt said the establishment of the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Board, and the introduction of a simplified online donor registration process in July would also improve rates.

Instant organ donor registration is available at register.donatelife.gov.au

FOSTER GIVING LIFE, LONG AFTER HIS ENDED

ANTHONY Foster devoted his life to helping victims of Catholic Church sexual abuse — in death he saved the lives of yet more strangers.

When the 64-year-old fell and hit his head in May last year he never regained consciousness and Australia lost one of its most inspiring campaigners for justice.

But in the hours after his life support was turned off Mr Foster’s organs gave new life to four strangers, while other donated tissue including skin and bone transformed the lives of many others.

Having fought together for two decades to gain justice for their own and other children, Chrissie Foster said she was proud of her husband’s final selfless act.

“It is a carrying on in death as he did in his life,” Ms Foster said.

“His life is carrying on in a different form in somebody else, and that is a gift in itself.

Chrissy Foster says she is proud of her husband Anthony Foster’s final selfless act. Picture: Tony Gough

“He was a very giving person, he was always thinking of others and was very intelligent. This just fits in with him.

“Doing this is just part of him because he cared about people deeply and he was always kind to everyone.”

After exposing the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse, Mr Foster was instrumental in the push for a Royal Commission and Victorian Parliament’s inquiry into the religious and other organisations.

Mr Foster was honoured with a state funeral and the thanks of Premier Daniel Andrews, who described him as a man who “profoundly changed Australian history”.

Chrissy Foster was the wife of Anthony Foster, who died recently after being a campaigner against sexual abuse and became an organ donor as his last gift. Picture: Tony Gough

But for several other Australian’s that gift is even more tangible, though they will never know it.

“There is great suffering attached to the problems that they had,” Ms Foster said.

“It is a great honour to be able to transfer that death into life. It is like swapping over — Anthony is going from life to death and somebody else is going from near death to life.

“It makes it less of a tragedy.

“They don’t have to thank me or Anthony, because I know what it means. I don’t have to meet them or communicated with them, I just know what life means because we have lost so much.

TRANSPLANTS GIVE EDA TRIPLE BIRTHDAY TREAT

EDA has three birthdays, and each is celebrated strongly.

Last year the Roxborough Park girl, 10, was saved by a liver and kidney transplant at the Royal Children’s Hospital, and after a year on dialysis she is jumping back into school, sport and life.

Eda, 10, is jumping back into school, sport and life. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“My kidney was not working very much and then my liver stopped working as well,” Eda said.

“I didn’t have much energy, my tummy grew big, I couldn’t walk and my legs were like balloons.

“I had a kidney operation, they changed my kidney and they took my liver away and gave me a new one.”

Eda, 10, has three birthdays, and each is celebrated strongly. Picture: Alex Coppel

Eda was born with polycystic kidney disease and her parents were initially told she may not survive longer than five days, and later that she may need the transplant by her 11th birthday.

But her kidney failed within just three years and she spent 18 months on dialysis until a matching kidney was found in 2011.

Unfortunately, Eda’s liver then packed up — and both organs wore out by 2016.

“At her worst point we were very, very sad and at times helpless,” Eda’s father Ali Sahin said.

“Twice my daughter has been given new life, so she has three birthdays now and they are very special to us.”

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