More than 70% of families of the dead patients consent to organ donation, compared to only 5% two years ago, head of the Iranian Society of Organ Donation, Ali Nobakht said.
“The increased public awareness about the need and importance of organ donation is a result of efforts by the media and artists,” he was quoted by IRNA as saying.
The high road mishap rate in the country —one person dies every 33 minutes due to traffic accidents and the number of injured is 20 times more —, result in many brain-death cases each year. “Fortunately, in most of the cases, family members and next of kin agree to donate the organs of the deceased,” said Nobakht.
According to the website of the Iranian Society of Organ Donation, at present 27,081 people are awaiting organ transplant.
There are currently 46 organ transplant centers in the country, which conducted over 4,500 organ transplant surgeries during the last Iranian year (ended in March). These included 2,500 kidney, 802 liver, 119 heart, 30 pancreas and several intestine, lung and bone marrow transplants.
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