By Michael CrooksTuesday 30 Jul 2024Health and WellbeingReading Time: 3 minutes

Parents of children whose lives were saved by organ donation are calling on all Australians to register as donors.

Key Points:

• DonateLife – the government agency that oversees organ and tissue donation in Australia – reports that while 4 in 5 Australians say they support organ donation, only 1 in 3 are registered to be a donor on the Australian Organ Donor Register (AODR).
• 1 organ donor can save the lives of up to 7 people. Many more are saved through eye and tissue donation.
• To become a registered donor, visit DonateLife.

Like Kristy and Matt Busuttil, whose baby son Harlen, was saved through a donor’s liver in Melbourne.

Harlen had the liver condition biliary atresia – a blockage in the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the gallbladder.

Of receiving the news Harlen was getting a donor liver, Mr Busuttil said, “My wife called me on FaceTime and we both just completely broke down.”

A call to register

This week (July 28 to August 4) is DonateLife Week.

DonateLife – the government agency that oversees organ and tissue donation in Australia – reports that while 4 in 5 Australians say they support organ donation, only 1 in 3 are registered to be a donor on the Australian Organ Donor Register (AODR).

Organ donation cannot occur if the potential donor is not on the AODR.

You can register for organ donation here.

“This DonateLife Week, I’m calling on everyone to register as a donor and to talk about organ and tissue donation,” Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ged Kearney said.

“One day, the life of a child you know just may depend on it.”

“Life-changing impact”

DonateLife reports that last year 80 children received an organ transplant in Australia.

1 organ donor can save the lives of up to 7 people. Many more are saved through eye and tissue donation.

At present, there are about 1,800 seriously ill Australians who wait in hope for a transplant. They include 16 children aged under 18 on a waitlist for a kidney transplant.

“There is nothing more powerful than meeting a child whose had a life-saving organ transplant, to know just how important it is that more Australians register as organ and tissue donors,” said Minister Kearney.

“As a former nurse, I’ve seen first-hand what happens when Australian families have the conversation about organ and tissue donation – and what a life-changing impact this has.”

“Amazing to see”

At the launch of DonateLife Week at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne on July 28, Minister Kearney was joined by children who had received liver, kidney, lung, heart and heart tissue transplants.

Among them was Harlen, now 2, who as a 7-week-old baby was in intensive care because of his liver condition

“That was really scary, just to see him there, breathing tube down his throat,” his dad, Matt, told the ABC.

“He was like that for maybe two or three days.”

Harlen’s mum Kristy was preparing to undergo an operation to donate part of her liver to her little boy, when news of a donor liver came through.

Now, Harlen is doing “really, really well,” Matt said.

“To see him now running around, chasing his siblings, it’s been amazing to see.”

Decline in donors

Stories like Harlen’s are not possible without organ and tissue donation, and DonateLife is concerned about a decline in registration in Australia.

Indeed, in the last year, those registering to donate fell by 13 per cent in NSW.

And more than 50 Australians died while on the organ transplant waitlist last year.

“We are nowhere near being able to provide organs as required for transplantation in Australia,” DonateLife’s Dr Michael O’Leary told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Anyone on the waitlist is on there because the specialists in organ failure felt these patients were warranted for transplantation.”

Register now

To become a registered donor, visit DonateLife.

Better still, open your Medicare app, and click on the organ donation link.

In fact, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, there was a bump in organ donation registration, when many Australians used their Medicare app to retrieve their vaccination certificate, and saw the organ donation link.

“The [certificate] button was really close to the one for signing up to be an organ donor,” Dr O’Leary said.

To register via the Medicare app, click on “Organ donation”, provide your driver’s license number, and you’ll be registered within seconds. Literally.

For more information on DonateLife Week visit here.