ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Patients who are unable to travel abroad for organ transplants have been denied hope of a lifeline after the Kurdistan Body Donors Organization (KBDO) said this week it is suspending its pursuit of new donors because a specialist hospital has failed to materialize.
KBDO, which works in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), was established in December 2013 to address the chronic shortage of organ donations and transplant facilities in the Region.
To date, the charity has registered around 1,000 people to donate their vital organs after their death, including kidneys, lungs, hearts, livers, pancreases, soft tissues, and even corneas.
However, KBDO has not signed up any new donors in the past eight months to protest the government’s failure to build a promised transplant hospital.
Although former health minister Dr. Rekawt Hama Rasheed laid the foundation stone of a new 1,000-bed hospital in Sulaimani in December 2013, the specialist facility is already years behind schedule.
“The minister laid the groundwork of the 1,000-bed hospital and earmarked a budget for it. But the hospital was never built,” Farhad Qadir, head of the KBDO, told Rudaw on Monday.
“We have been waiting for so long, but neither the government nor the Ministry of Health assisted us,” he said.
“Since the organization was established, three members have died. We never managed to make use of their organs,” he said.
Had the facilities been available to use the organs, 21 patients could have been saved, he added.
Some organs can be donated while the donor is still alive.
“Until now, three of our members have donated their organs. One of the donors was a person with special needs donating his kidney to the wife of a Peshmerga soldier. The second was a woman who donated her kidney to another woman. And the last person was a woman donating her kidney to a man,” Qadir said.
The lack of donors and specialist transplant facilities has led to a boom in human trafficking, where desperate locals, migrants, and refugees sell their body parts for cash. Others are simply murdered for their organs.
READ MORE: ‘Ready to sell my blood’: Kurdistan’s online black market in human body part
“If the government decides to build the hospital, we can save the lives of many and help stop the growth of human trafficking in the Kurdistan Region,” he added.
Under current KRG law, two signatures are required before organs can be taken – one from the donor and one from their family.
“Those who want to donate organs cannot become a member of ours without the consent of their families,” Qadir said.
A bill is currently going through the KRG parliament could give doctors the power to veto the wishes of grieving families in favor of the donor’s pledge. MPs could pass the bill as early as next week.
Even if more people register as donors, the Kurdistan Region’s public health system still lacks the medical facilities to carry out complex and costly transplant procedures. Those with financial means will often travel abroad for treatment.
Plans to establish a specialist facility in Sulaimani were shelved when the financial crisis struck in 2014.
Related: Hundreds register as organ donors, but legislation slow to adapt
Zana Mala Khalid, an MP and member of the Health Committee of the Kurdistan Region parliament, says they are urging the government to fast track the hospital and create an organ donation bank.
“Human trafficking has become a dangerous trend in the Kurdistan Region. We will need to stop it,” Khalid told Rudaw English.
A donation bank will help “prevent human trafficking and many people from selling their organs in illegal ways,” he added.
Translation and additional reporting by Zhelwan Z. Wali
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