JEDDAH: King Fahd Specialist Hospital in Dammam recently established an organ-donation center in an attempt to cover the needs of patients in the Eastern Province. But the head of the center says that efforts to persuade the families of brain-dead patients to allow organs to be harvested posthumously have so far failed.
“Until now we have not been successful in convincing any Saudi family to donate since we launched this center,” said Dr. Rasheed Al-Hubail, head of the center.
Finding enough organs to meet demands is a global problem, but the issue is further complicated in Muslim countries where respect for the corpse and speedy interment of the dead pose unique challenges for promoting organ donation. “One of the difficulties we face is the lack of donors and awareness,” said the doctor.
The center dispatches mobile teams to hospitals searching for cases of brain dead patients. They try to persuade the patient’s family to agree to be donors when they die and to explain ethics behind harvesting organs from the dead to save the living.
“Although there are fatwas from Islamic scholars allowing organ donations, some families believe it’s not fair to remove the organs of their brain-dead relatives.”
Part of the problem involves a common misconception that brain death is reversible. Unlike a coma, there is virtually universal consensus among the medical community that a human body can be kept alive artificially even when person is clinically dead. In order to raise awareness the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars issued a fatwa in 1982 declaring organ donations of living or dead persons permissible.
But, says the doctor, the majority don’t understand the idea of organ donation and transplant.
The problem is more acute because of the growing number of Saudis requiring transplants, especially of kidneys due to an alarming rate of diabetes.
King Fahd Specialist Hospital in Dammam has performed 14 transplants since its inception.
“All operations have been successful and we are following up on the patients’ health status, which is stable,” he said.
The doctor said some of these transplants were performed with organs donated posthumously.
The hospital is the first organ-transplant center in the Eastern Province. “We want to make things easier for our patients,” said the doctor. “Most organ donation centers are in Riyadh.”
