Spain breaks organ transplant and donor records again

SPAIN has broken its own record for the number of organ transplants carried out in a year in 2017.

The country’s National Transplant Organisation (ONT) said 2017 saw a total of 5,259 transplant operations performed beating 2016’s record of 4,818 transplants.

The majority were kidney and liver transplants.

Spain also boasts a much higher average of organ donors with 46.9 donors per million people in 2017, compared with 43.9 per million in 2016 and 39.7 in 2015.

The EU average is just 19.6 donors per million and the US average is 26.6 per million.

Ten percent of donors in Spain are over 80-years-old.

Spanish Minister for Health Dolores Montserrat said the 2017 data means that Spain has topped the global list of transplants for 26 consecutive years.

“In the last three years the donation rate per million population has increased by 30 percent, which is extraordinary when starting from a position of excellence,” she said.