1 First organ transplant law
The UAE passed its first law on organ transplants in 1993. Under this regulation, transplants were allowed between living donors who were related. This meant that only kidneys and parts of the liver could legally be transplanted in the country, as organs like the heart and lung can only be acquired from brain-dead persons.
2 First surgeries
The first organ transplantation surgeries were conducted in the capital’s Shaikh Khalifa Medical City. All the cases pertained to kidney transplants, which are the most commonly transplanted solid organs worldwide, followed by the liver, the heart and the lungs.
3 First deceased donor transplant
In April 2013, a 23-year-old Emirati woman from Al Ain became the recipient of the first kidney from a deceased donor. The donor had been a victim of a road traffic accident in Saudi Arabia.
4 New law
The UAE’s laws on organ donations from deceased donors remained unclear, until a presidential decree in September 2016 authorised donations from deceased persons and accepted the medically agreed-upon definition of brain death.
5 First heart, lung, liver transplants
The law on deceased donor transplants became effective in 2017, and by the end of the year, heart, lung, liver and kidney transplants had been performed at the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi with organs from deceased donors.
6 Absence of donor registry
This means that residents who wish to donate organs must convey their wishes to family members and friends, who must then communicate this to the health care facility in case the person ends up brain dead. In addition, the lack of coordination between health care facilities on a federal level and the absence of a ranked national transplant list severely limit the number of organs available to transplant centres. Instead, each centre maintains its own list of transplant patients, and is only able to perform the surgeries when a donor becomes available within the facility.
7 Willing donors
Studies have revealed that up to 70 per cent of UAE residents are willing to be organ donors, and this further cements the case for the establishment of a donor registry. While officials from the National Transplant Committee said earlier this year that the registry is in the works, nothing has yet been announced so far.
8 Limited organs
Dr Ali Al Obaidli, head of the UAE’s National Transplantation Committee, had earlier explained that only 0.5 per cent of mortalities in a country present viable opportunities for organ donation, with the figure rising somewhat to 14 per cent when only deaths in the intensive care unit are considered.
“Organs need to be in perfect condition to be harvested, and the donor has to be in a state of brain death. There are various other conditions that have to be met, meaning that only a small number of organs are ever viable for transplantation. And this is why it is especially important for UAE residents to speak to their family about organ donation, which would, in turn, support the country’s transplant programmes,” he had said.
At present, in case of brain death, a specialised group of professionals, including representatives from the National Transplantation Committee approaches families of potential deceased donors to discuss organ donation. If consent is given, transplant teams are notified and transplant facilities get in touch with matched recipients to begin the process of transplantation.
