Despite the campaigns carried out to promote awareness of organs, the battle in this field continues without being able to have the expected results. Health professionals give their reasons about the importance of giving life and insist on the fight.
Yolanda González, is the director of the Itauguá Hospital and a health professional for almost 20 years, a time that has also been working to raise awareness about organ donation in the country.
How is the donation culture in the country?
We always insist to the people, reaching the media or we do it through social workers, nurses, attorneys. We seek with great effort the awareness of donating, but also one of lowering one’s head when people are old-fashioned, hopefully with young people we can have more openness and achieve that conviction, that they know that an organ gives life and that even a relative lives through other people. I believe that with you and us we must continue to insist on the importance of donation.
Is there greater awareness about donation?
Yes, there is an increase in awareness in the sense of donation, but we must remember that despite the Anita Law, the family member has to authorize the return. One can be a potential donor, but in the end it is the relative, so they are the owner of that patient and that is where we do not have that openness because many times they do not have that vision.
What situation is the country in terms of organ donation?
There is an increase, however, we are far from nearby nations such as Argentina, Brazil, which perform transplants daily, hopefully we can get there and that is what we aim at from the National Hospital we want to start again.
We were doing cornea and we even have a skin bank and reactivate kidney transplants, our entire team is ready. We just need more awareness from the people.
Is the strategy carried out enough to publicize the donation?
We would have to insist more with talks, educate people more than anything and make it known who can donate. Insist on granting more knowledge to the relatives of patients who suffered traffic accidents , who have their children with brain death , it is important that the professionals of the large hospitals inform people because we are losing potential donors it is because the people refuse to give hope of life.
How professional is it hard to be in front to persuade people?
If it’s very life, I’ve spent it since I was chief of surgery, ours since I was chief of surgery, our people have a mentality that we want to sell organs, they have many beliefs and they even ask us in return that we deliver to a patient complete to a patient who is diabetic of actions make the fight difficult. I hope that the new generations change and that they feel the importance of donating.
Message for the people?
He urged everyone to go through a moment that implies decision, but I believe that giving life so that their relatives continue to live others is also giving hope.
