site.btaExecutive Agency for Transplantation: Bulgarians Are Compassionate and Donate More Organs than People Abroad

Executive Agency for Transplantation: Bulgarians Are Compassionate and Donate More Organs than People Abroad

Sofia, September 9 (BTA) - People in Bulgaria are good and compassionate and donate more organs than those abroad, and that tendency is reaffirming itself, the Executive Director of the Executive Agency for Transplantation, Dr. Mariana Simeonova told a BTA hosted news conference on Wednesday. She presented a project for improving the professional qualifications of her Agency's employees under OP Administrative Capacity, valued at 113,912 leva.

A total of 400 human lives have been saved in the past four years thanks to organ transplantations, Simeonova noted. The donor network in Bulgaria consists of 28 centres, with two additional ones being currently developed in Silistra (on the Danube) and Yambol (Southeast Bulgaria). Hospitals in other cities have also expressed desire to become donor centres, she explained.

There were a total of 19 transplantations in Bulgaria in 2012 - eight from brain dead donors and eleven from living donors, who were related to the transplantee. A total of 28 organs have been donated by the families of brain dead donors, which resulted in 39 transplantations. There were a total of 75 transplantations in 2014, of which 13 were from living donors. So far this year there have been a total of 43 transplantations from brain dead donors and nine from living donors, Simeonova said. Transplantations abroad are also developing successfully, mainly in Austria, where the lives of many Bulgarians have been saved with organs which have been transported there from Bulgaria, the expert explained.

According to Simeonova, such trainings are needed to improve the competencies of administration employees and facilitate their decision making skills, which are related to the specific work of managing and coordinating organ donations.