January 25, 2018

Dutch florist to donate kidney to competitor

Filed under: Health,Science by Orangemaster @ 1:13 pm
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A florist in the town of Oostvoorne, South Holland has agreed to donate one of his kidneys to his competitor.

Jan, 62 and a florist, has a genetic kidney disease, inherited from his father who died at age 69. Jan’s problems are not yet critical, but he’ll need a kidney soon. Dick, 55 and a competing florist, is a match and is willing to donate his kidney to Jan. Sadly, Jan’s two sons also have the same genetic disease, but at least they’ll have a father for a much longer time if all goes well, and hopefully more resources to solve their predicament.

Everybody who knows Jan and Dick in Oostvoorne are impressed with the gesture. “I barely take aspirin. I can do without one of my kidneys”, says Dick. Jan was speechless when he found out that Dick was willing to donate one of his kidneys. “You’re not going bankrupt are you?” said Jan to Dick when Dick came over to tell him the good news. “No, I came to tell you I’m going to give you a kidney”.

Dick found out that Jan needed a kidney through two social workers. And although he did talk about donating with this wife, he says he went behind her back to the hospital first to see if he was a match.

You can bet the media will be covering this when it happens.

(Link: waarmaarraar.nl)

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January 9, 2015

2014 a record year for Dutch organ donation

Filed under: Science by Orangemaster @ 3:45 pm

Last year was a record year for the number of organ donations from the deceased in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch Transplantation Foundation. The count was 271 people, 11 percent more than in 2013. The number of people who donated part of their liver or a kidney for transplantation while alive was 533 in 2014 as compared to 522 in 2013. Since 2007 the number of donors has risen by 20 percent.

Over the past year, organ donation has made headlines a few times, particularly in 2007 when hoax reality television show
The Big Donor Show fooled people around the world into believing that a terminally ill woman was prepared to donate a kidney to one of 25 people who needed one. Although shocking to many, the goal to achieve greater awareness about the urgent need for organ donors obviously had some effect, as did, I’m sure, many other regular campaigns.

Recently, a man from Almere with kidney disease found a kidney donor after an appeal on Facebook about a year ago. The transplantation apparently has a 90% chance of succeeding.

(Link: nos.nl)

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