The number of people in this country who have donated their kidneys after death is not enough to fill a big maxi.
A big maxi taxi seats 25 passengers. Only 17 people in this country have to date donated their kidneys following their death, according to statistics from the National Organ Transplant Unit (Notu). Those 17 deceased donors have been able to save 29 lives.
In August, Guardian Media Limited embarked on the Gift of Life campaign aimed at promoting public awareness about organ donation and transplants and encourage citizens to augment this country's donor pool.
This week, we speak to Dr Lesley Ann Roberts, the head of the Notu since its inception in January 2006.
Roberts said, to date, some 1,500 people have signed up to become donors in this country.
The 17 deceased donors in this country did not sign up before their death.
"The way the system works is that you can sign up but you have to obviously die before you can become a deceased donor and you have to die in a certain way. You have to die whereby your circulatory system is still going, so therefore you basically have to die in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) or in a monitored situation," Roberts said. Roberts said people often question why those who die at the scene of road traffic accidents and murders are not used as donors.
"Those are circulatory deaths and at this point in time, we are not using that type of person," she said.
"We can move towards it but that has added complications, added problems and the need for added resources."
There are currently 92 people on the Notu's waiting list who do not have someone to donate a kidney to them and are hoping to get one from a deceased donor.
There are hundreds more who have not completed all the required paperwork and have not been added to the list as yet. According to the Notu, approximately 500 people are in need of kidney transplants in this country and that number grows by approximately 40 every year, with a "very large number" of people dying annually while waiting. Roberts said one person has been on the Notu's waiting list for some nine years.
"Essentially, the big problem that we have as the rest of the world has is the demand for organs is far greater than the supply of organs, so everything that is really done now is how do you increase your organ supply," Roberts said.
The Notu's first kidney transplant took place on January 19, 2006.
The unit has done 159 transplants so far, Roberts said.
"You may say that is not very much in the ten years because it is not, but given our circumstances, given what we have done, I think we have done a lot. I think we have shown that the programme is sustainable. We have shown that the programme could be compared with international statistics because we have a one-year survival rate of both living related, unrelated and deceased of about 93 per cent," Roberts said.
Roberts said while the Notu has made some mistakes along the way there has been growth.
"I remember there was somebody...their father literally lifted them up and brought them in to see us and he gave her a kidney and now she is there arguing with him, she has bought a car, she is working, she has gotten a second chance at life," Roberts said.
"We saw people who were desperate, so emotionally sunken, now having something to live for. All the stories are not happy stories but we have seen people who felt that they had nothing more, nothing to live for and having a transplant and being back on the road.
"I think that is one of the high points in life seeing that transformation and I think that is absolutely incredible."
Another highlight for Roberts is when the Notu managed to do 20 transplants in 2014.
That is the most transplants the unit did in a single year.
n Anyone willing to become a national donor can call 800-3666.
