Lovelette Brooks, News Editor

THE TECHNOLOGY that would make it possible for Prime Minister Bruce Golding to establish an organ bank in Jamaica does not exist, says one of the island's leading urologists.

What could work, and is currently working in other parts of the world, is a donor databank, where persons sign a living will to donate organs or tissues to needy recipeints when they die.

Professor Lawson Douglas, who has for more than 40 years performed kidney transplantations in Jamaica, says the prime minister was "ill-advised" in recently suggesting that the island look into establishing an organ bank.

"The technology to store organs, such as the liver, kidney, heart and pancreas, has not yet been invented," Douglas tells The Sunday Gleaner. "They cannot be stored in a bank."

Organs for transplantations which are still alive after a person is brain dead depend on blood supply to keep them alive. In most cases, they must be explanted from the donor and implanted in the recipeint within minutes.

Specially treated

However, as professor Lawson explains, there is a longer window if the organ is specially treated.

"If you wash out the blood, and treat them with a special solution, they will last for eight-12 hours at most," he says.

Speaking at a diabetes conference in Ocho Rios last weekend, Golding, who was delivering the fourth annual Hugh Lawson Shearer Memorial Lecture, said he had taken steps that could see the establishment of an organ bank in Jamaica.

"I want us to explore the possibility of establishing, with appropriate legislation, an organ bank so that people who don't have to die, do not," Golding said.

While admitting that he would ask for guidance from the Church and medical professions, the prime minister said he had asked for a paper to be prepared so he could become au fait with the issues involved in such a scheme, including how other countries did it, the regulatory arrangements that were in place, and how to avoid exploitation of body parts.

As Douglas explains, the very process of executing a successful organ transplantation makes Golding's proposal seem far-fetched at best.

Intricate process

"Transplanting an organ is an intricate process. Even while the person is dead, you have to ensure that the heart is still pumping; you may have to use a respirator. You have to cross-match for blood type, compatibility, etc, before the transplant takes place," he argued.

According to Douglas, the last kidney transplant in Jamaica involving a deceased person was done about 10 years ago.

"We have been using kidneys from live persons until quite recently, when we stopped doing transplants because of the cost involved," he says. "The cost for a month's supply of immuno-suppressant drugs is in the range of US$2,500 (J$220,000). Not many persons can afford that."

The Medical Association of Jamaica says it would welcome a donor databank, which would include persons documenting their intention to donate organs on their national IDs or driver's licence, for example.

lovelette.brooks@gleanerjm.com