The Minister of Health and Wellness gave an update on the National Organs Donor Transplant Program outside of Cabinet on Tuesday.
The Hon. Dr. Michael Darville told reporters, “we about now to start training of our nurses in the UK and getting everything ready as far as the man power resources are concerned to start first in the country kidney transplants and then it will expand to other types of transplants.”
Speaking to the timeline of the start of the program Darville said, “I know there are a lot of Bahamians who suffer from end stage renal disease on dialysis. And our initial approach to organ transplant particularly kidneys, its live donors, that means if you are in kidney failure and you have a loved one who’s prepared to donate a kidney we try to investigate whether you’re a match and then we put you on our list for possible transplant surgery which will improve the quality of life of many of our patients presently on dialysis. But I want to make it clear that not everyone qualifies for transplant surgery. And so that’s the reason why our medical team, our surgery team along with our consultants from the UK will begin to see cases the minute everything is in place and our nurses are trained and go through the stages where we will start the interview process with family and potential donors.”
The Minister said the administration is committed to starting the transplant program at the earliest convenience.
