'Organ donation' warning from the expert: “1 person goes to the ground when he could be a life for 7 people”

Kayseri City Hospital Urology Clinic and Kidney Transplant Supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mert Ali Karadağ drew attention to the importance of organ donation and said, “1 person goes to the ground when he can be a life for 7 people.”

Kayseri City Hospital Urology Clinic and Kidney Transplant Supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mert Ali Karadağ stated that they have performed 10 kidney transplants so far in the kidney transplant center established 3 years ago in Kayseri City Hospital and that the transplanted people have regained their health. Giving information about organ donation, Karadağ said, “Our center became operational in 2021. We are the only kidney transplant center that serves not only Kayseri but also the surrounding provinces. Since the establishment of our department, we have transplanted 10 patients and we have been successful. One of them was from cadaver and 9 of them were living donors. All of them continue their lives very happily. Patients who are brain dead but still have a beating heart are offered to their relatives after the brain death decision made by a committee of 5 people. This is now an irreversible process. Even if the patient is apparently alive, brain death is accepted as brain death. If it is accepted by the family relatives, the cadaveric organ donation process begins.”

“1 person goes to the ground when he could have given life to 7 people”

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Karadağ noted that they are in a good situation in Turkey in terms of kidney transplantation with live donors, but the important thing is transplantation from cadaver and said, “The generally accepted and appropriate thing in the world is to increase organ transplantation from cadaver. This is very important. A cadaver can be a life for 7 people. Do not think only kidney. It can be 2 kidneys, liver, pancreas, intestine, lung and heart. Therefore, as a country, we need to focus on increasing cadaver transplantation. Because in a living donor, the patient does not have any pathology, he comes back perfectly healthy, gives his kidney and stays with one kidney. He continues his life and there is no problem. We need to increase cadaveric transplantation, we need to allow this. The right thing is to increase cadaveric transplantation. It is right for the public to increase cadaveric transplantation. It is much healthier. Because it is wasted. When 1 person could give life to 7 people, he goes to the ground. 1 person can also pass away from the world by giving life to 7 people. This is a debt for all of us. We can walk and breathe now, but we are all candidates for organ transplantation. We may have liver and kidney failure. This is a duty that falls on all of us. I don't need it today, I am comfortable at home, but that doesn't mean it will be like this in 3 months. The duty of all of us is to donate organs,” he said.

Underlining that patients waiting for transplantation have a hard time, Mert Ali Karadağ said, “Patients are taken into a regular dialysis program. The devices take 20 hours 4 times a week. It is a serious waste of time. Their complications increase with the drugs they use. After kidney transplantation, patients can continue their lives in a quality way as long as they take their medications. It is an indisputable superiority both materially and spiritually. Organ transplantation is superior to dialysis treatment. It is so clear in every sense.”