'It's so important' - Derby transplant nurse urges more people to talk about organ donation
A Nurse who has seen first-hand the life changing impact organ donation can have on the lives of patients has urged people to speak about the subject more to make our wishes known.
Brenda Rivera, a Renal Transplant Clinical Nurse Specialist based at Royal Derby Hospital, helps to care for patients who have recently undergone kidney transplant surgery.
A patient requires a kidney transplant when one of their kidneys has stopped working properly, meaning their kidneys are not filtering out waste products from the blood and converting them into urine. Their condition can then escalate to end-stage chronic kidney disease or kidney failure, which is treated with dialysis until a kidney donor becomes available.
Brenda said that we should all be discussing organ donation more than we do to help those who are waiting a life changing donation:
“It is so important that we talk about organ donation. There are lots of patients suffering needing a transplant so it's important that we can get them healthy organs to enable them to move forward with their lives.
“We do a lot of work in our clinics to encourage the conversation, particularly around live donors for kidneys, and I think that awareness in younger patient groups is much better – but there’s still more we could be doing.”
Brenda forms part of the Transplant Nurse Team which supports patients at both Royal Derby Hospital and Queen’s Hospital Burton by hosting clinics which involves lots of teams from across the Trust to help patients through their recovery.
Although UHDB does not have an active transplant site, patients from the communities we serve who have undergone surgery elsewhere.
With hospital appointments which often last for large parts of the day after receiving a transplant, Brenda said that it is of huge benefit to patients to be able to be seen at their local hospital.
Brenda said: “Transplant patients will often require multiple hospital visits in the first few weeks following their operation, so it’s good to be able to see these patients closer to their home.
“Having a transplant is a big procedure, so to cut out any unnecessary stress of travelling is a huge help.
“As well as the initial weeks following the procedure being important due to the patients being immune-compromised, the first year of aftercare is crucial, particularly in renal patients, to ensure the body doesn’t reject the new organ.”
Brenda, who is originally from close to Manila in the Philippines, was recently featured in a UK-based Filipino magazine speaking about her role, which has resulted in her being contacted by people from around the world.
She added: “It was very heart-warming to see all the comments on social media, they even came from as far away as America!”
UHDB is now asking people across the area to tell their families that they want to donate after their death to ensure more lives are saved.
To find out more and register your decision, visit the NHS Organ Donor Register and share your decision with your family. Users of the NHS app, can also use this to record, check or amend their details or decision.
Visit the NHS Organ Donor Register website (opens in new window) >