The parents of little Antoine, very marked by the death of their first child when he was only 23 days old, are appealing for organ donation to save their son, suffering from the same heart problem.
One month old and hospitalized in the cardiological hospital of Bron, near Lyon, Antoine needs “with a new heart to go on living”. The little boy “was only three days old when doctors told us that heart failure was preventing his heart from contracting properly,” his father Kevin Chalaye told AFP. “They added that the heart would eventually become fragile as well as the organs it irrigates and that Antoine’s only chance of survival was a transplant”.
But such an operation is difficult to perform on such a young baby. Likewise, the compatibility criteria are very specific. The waiting period for a donation organ is on average seven months. “Compatible” donors must weigh “between 2.5 kilos and 8 kilos and be less than a year old”, specifies the dad.
“I need a new heart to go on living”
To speed up the procedure and raise public awareness of organ donation, the parents of the newborn created a facebook page called “a heart for Antoine” and which already has more than 10,000 subscribers. They write: “My name is Antoine, I was born on November 22, 2018 and I have a sick heart just like my big brother Gabriel who did not have time to know much about life. He only lived 23 days…I need a new heart to go on living.The transplant is my only chance…Think about organ donation, one day someone you love might need it… “
According to Kevin Chalaye, approximately “two out of three parents refuse their child to be a donor. It is already very difficult to lose a child, so if you are asked to take their heart, of course it is not easy to accept (…) But only one sensitized person can save a child”.
More than 6,000 transplants performed in 2017
In 2017, for the first time in France, the bar of 6,000 organ transplants per year was exceeded. In detail, 6,105 transplants took place last year, i.e. 3.5% more than in 2016 and 19% more than in 2013. The most common transplant remains the kidney transplant, which represents nearly two-thirds of all transplants, with 3782 operations performed, including 611 thanks to a living donor, specifies this agency which ensures the distribution and allocation of organs to people in need. Next come liver transplants (1,374 transplants, 18 of which were performed using a living donor) and then heart transplants (467 transplants). In 2017, 378 lung transplants, 96 pancreas, 6 heart-lungs and finally 2 intestines also took place.
Since 1er January 2016, in order to reduce the number of donation refusals, all French people are automatically considered as presumed organ donors after their death, unless otherwise declared in the official refusal register. “Before, if the deceased was not registered in the Official Refusal Register, the family could express their disagreement orally. Now, the relatives must write a letter describing when the deceased mentioned not wishing to donate their organs, and why”, detailed Serge Goutchtat, president of the Association for the donation of organs and human tissues of Haute-Garonne (ADOT 31) to The Dispatch when the law came into force on January 1, 2017.
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-1730888646.jpg "Kidney donation while alive: “It was an act of love that I did for my sister”")
