Within the European Organ Donation Week, a national campaign was launched in Sofia in support of organ donation. Transplantation is one of the great miracles of modern medicine, giving people afflicted with life-threatening diseases a chance to receive a new organ and go on living. The campaign in support of this humane act has been organized since 2013 under the patronage of the Executive Agency for Transplantation with the aim of raising awareness of organ donation as a personal choice and a as way to help promote a successful national transplantation programme. In 2015, 14 donation situations involving a deceased donor occurred and 9 involving living donors – a total of 28 kidneys were transplanted, 12 livers and 6 hearts.

We met with Dr. Mariana Simeonova, Director of the Transplantation Agency to tell us more about this initiative:

“One week is just not enough. Our work spans the whole year. The media are a great help to us by reaching out to the public at large and the idea is to help people find out what brain death means – when only the heart goes on beating – how brain death is confirmed and who confirms it. We cannot expect people to understand all this, that is why it is so important that they are given this information. We want to tell the public that there are people who have given the gift of life after their own death, that at the worst of times, when their lives have been shattered, the relatives of the deceased have made this noble decision in a matter of hours because there can be no delay. We want to pay our respects to the people, who have passed away, to their relatives, to the doctors who have been fighting for our lives – when that is possible but also when it is not. They are incredible professionals and honourable people. As a doctor working in intensive care, I know well how hard it is to be fighting for one’s life and how hard and noble the relatives’ decision is. And though I myself had concerns about this initiative, this year, for the first time the families of each donor will receive a star-shaped plaque. Because these people really and truly are stars, to us and to the transplantees. They have earned our love, our gratitude, it is the least we can do for them.”

As to the biggest problems facing organ donation in Bulgaria, Dr. Simeonova says they are: insufficient awareness of the problem and the enormous work load of the coordinators – intensive care doctors, anesthesiologists, and transplantologists. Dr. Simeonova says she recently took part in an interesting international forum:

“I attended the annual meeting of the Council of Europe Committee on Organ Donation. These meetings, taking place at the European Commission in Brussels and in Strasburg, are very important as it is there that organ donation policy as a whole is decided. We take an active part in the discussions and there definitely is a change – people know that we have saved the lives of their countrymen, that we are not a country that is always demanding, but that our professional teams of doctors and the people donating organs can offer help. We are now part of joint projects – something that does not bring in money but does shape policies in organ donation. We shall be taking part in such a project jointly with Italy, Austria and Slovenia. I am glad to say we have been invited. We used to be somewhere in the periphery, but now we must show there are many smart and highly responsible people living in Bulgaria.”

A round table is scheduled for November to discuss the introduction of the crossover organ donation law which does not exist in Bulgaria as yet. Dr. Simeonova is demanding legislative changes but that would be up to the Bulgarian MPs. Until that time, people in need of transplantation can only hope and wait for this to happen.

English version: Milena Daynova