Organ donors from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Mother’s Memorial Hospital – Research Institute in Lodz, Poland

Background:    Since 1995, the issues of organ transplantation have been determined by the law in Poland. Retrieving organs from children is very difficult due to a problem with recognition of a child as an organ donor and issues of parental consent.
    Material/Methods:    During a 7-year period of observation, 1868 patients were admitted to the pediatric ICU of the ICZMP; unfortunately, 290 children (15.5%) died. The majority of patients who died did not fulfill medical criteria of the brain stem death protocol.
    Results:    Only 11 patients (3.8%) from this group could be accepted for organ donation.
        Parents of 6 patients, out of 22 for whom the brain death test was performed, did not consent to organ retrieval. This is a better outcome than in other polish hospitals; nevertheless, a medical campaign to improve this result was interpreted by parents very negatively in ICZMP.
    Conclusions:    The brain stem death procedure is rarely implemented for children who did not survive pediatric ICU admission. Public opinion in Poland currently does not support a transplantations program in the pediatric population.

Keywords: Recipient, Donor, transplant, Pediatric, intensive care unit