Following the August 29 death of a 16-year-old teenager in the wait for a kidney transplant at the nephrology unit of the J.M. de los Ríos Hospital, Venezuela’s National Transplant Organization (ONTV) denounced that an approximate number of 84 children and teenagers have died in the wait for a transplant at this hospital since 2017.
“It is very important to note that this approximate figure of 84 children and teenagers only reflects those who died at the nephrology unit of the J.M. de los Ríos Hospital, between 2017 and 2023,” indicated the director of institutional relations at ONTV, Lucila Velutini.
She added “So far in 2023, 6 children have died in the wait for a kidney transplant. They were patients with chronic kidney disease who relied on dialysis. A transplant is the ideal way to deal with their condition, but not everyone qualifies yet and some required conditions are not met in our country.”
She insisted that “these children can only go through to a living donor transplant, which further reduces their possibilities. Transplants in children under 16 years of age have not been performed in public hospitals for 6 years, following the suspension of the Organ and Tissue Procurement Program on June 1, 2017.
Last June, the NGO stressed the need to “reinforce the JM de los Ríos Hospital as a pediatric transplant center of national reference, through the improvement of the staff, services and supplies.”
Currently, “organ transplants between living people are performed only in the private health sector, but their high cost makes them inaccessible to the majority of Venezuelan patients who require it.”
Translated by José Rafael Medina
