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A man who has been in the UK heart transplant waiting list for over nine years is calling on people to register as organ donors.
Gareth Evans is the longest-waiting patient on the UK heart transplant list. He is diagnosed with cardiomyopathy [kahr-dee-oh-mahy-OP–uh-thee], a disease that may cause the heart muscle to thicken.
Evans had a heart transplant at age 17, and he was told that he would need another transplant in about five to 10 years. However, the heart donated to him lasted longer than expected, giving Evans 28 years before needing a second transplant.
In hopes of encouraging more people to become donors, Evans emphasized how greatly donors help people like him. According to Evans, he would not have experienced having a family of his own without his first donor. He also said that more donors would cut the waiting time for people in need of treatment.
Evans is just one of the 6,133 people on the UK transplant waiting list. NHS Blood and Transplant statistics show that around 3,000 opportunities for transplants did not push through in 2017 because families were unwilling to donate deceased relatives’ organs.
To help patients like Evans, the UK government plans to implement an “opt-out system” for organ donations. Under the proposed system, all adults will be automatically deemed as organ donors unless they or their families say otherwise.
However, a research suggests that the opt-out system might not guarantee an increase in donors. As grieving families tend to think that their deceased relatives would be against the organ donation, these families may veto the donation upon their relatives’ passing.