Cienciaes.com: Organ transplants. We spoke with Maribel Delgado and MªPaz Cebrián.

2010-07-09 18:53:35

The 2010 Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation has gone to the National Transplant Organization (ONT) of Spain, together with the Transplantation Society, which is based in Canada. The ONT has been a model to follow throughout the world, to the point that the European Union has taken it as a model to follow for the preparation of the community directive on transplants.

An organ transplant has to be a well-orchestrated work for it to be successful, from the donor, sometimes alive and sometimes deceased, to the recipient, an impressive chain of people and technical means is involved. The National Transplant Organization has contributed greatly to the coordination of the entire process in Spain and we have proof of its good work in the figures: since its foundation the donor rate has grown by 280%, more than 70,000 transplants have been performed. organs and more than 200,000 tissues and cells. Thanks to its dissemination work, the Spanish donation rate is double that of the European one, proof of the generosity of many and the collaboration between science and society.

But, as I have mentioned, a whole army of people intervenes in an organ transplant process. Many times we focus on the technical difficulties or the most relevant experts and forget about all those who carry the great weight of the entire structure on their backs. A transplant would not be possible without doctors, of course, but it would not be possible without anesthetists, nursing staff, orderlies, ambulances, laboratory technicians, personnel in charge of disinfection and cleaning, ambulance or helicopter drivers, etc.

Today in “Talking with Scientists” we approach some of those who, being essential protagonists in an organ transplant process, are rarely mentioned. We spoke with two nurses from the 12 de Octubre Hospital in Madrid: Maribel Delgado, nurse responsible for consulting transplant patients, specifically in the kidney transplant unit, and MªPaz Cebrián, who works in the transplant coordination team, both at the 12 de Octubre Hospital. October Madrid.