Dr Lluís Riera, from the Urology Service of the Bellvitge Hospital, has participated in celebration of the National Transplant Day. The Catalan Transplant Organisation (OCATT) was the co-organiser of the event alongside the host, the Vall d'Hebron Hospital. Riera stressed that "being leaders in organ transplants is everyone’s credit, but especially the families’, who, even mourning a family member’s decease they donate organs to give life. It is the best demonstration of generosity towards others". Throughout the transplant process "doctor-patient bonds are established that transcend and go beyond the strictly professional." he added.
The conference took the form of a debate with three professional-patient pairs to reflect on the relationships established between them. Eva Casanovas, a kidney transplant recipient at the HUB, spoke alongside Dr Riera. She had words of recognition for the healthcare staff. "My kidney disease started when I was eleven years old and the first kidney transplant came when I was thirteen. The healthcare staff have been permanently present in my life and our relationship has always been close, free-flowing and without barriers, with great humanity and empathy on their part." she explained.
The other two pairs were the following:
Cristina Berastegui, pneumologist at the Lung Transplant and Pulmonary Vascular Pathology Unit at Vall d'Hebron, and Yolanda Fernández, lung transplant recipient at Vall d'Hebron and president of the patients' association AIRE.
Gonzalo Crespo, hepatologist at Hospital Clínic, and Laura Geli, liver transplant recipient at that very hospital and author of Reinici (Eng. Restart), a book about her experience.
Up to 743 kidney transplants were performed in Catalonia in 2021, which is 9.4% more than the previous year. Bellvitge Hospital performed 193 of them, Hospital Clínic 156 and Vall d'Hebron up to 121 kidney transplants in adults and 6 in children. Catalonia has one of the highest transplant rates in the world, with 137 transplants performed per million population. In 2021, it again broke the barrier of 1,000 transplants, with 1,063 transplants, 6.4% more than the previous year, according to data from the Catalan Transplant Organisation (OCATT).
The activity of Catalan hospitals made 2021 the fourth best year in history in terms of transplantation, a milestone that would not have been possible without the generosity of donors and their families. 288 people gave their organs after dying last year, 8% more than in 2020. Living donation also increased, with 145 living kidney donors, a rise over 2020 of 28.3%.
The director of the OCATT, Jaume Tort, wished to highlight the great work of the entire Catalan health system and society in terms of donation and transplantation: "Ours is a highly specialised field, and here we have the good fortune and luxury of having twenty transplant teams in different Catalan hospitals. These multidisciplinary professional teams are leaders in the field, but they are also experts in accompaniment, empathy and understanding. Because this is what the world of donation and transplantation is all about: generosity, solidarity and humanity."
J. Tort also added, "One of the great advantages of our organisation is the close relationship with professionals, but also with patient associations that, in a complementary way to the former, do an incredible job accompanying and sharing their experience with people who are going through the same situation they went through before. And this is priceless; it is another great example of experience". The director of the OCATT also had words of thanks for "the involvement, willingness and effort" of professionals and patients.