Medal honour for organ champs
Congratulations to consultant Mike Dean and transfusion nurse Rebecca Patel who were both winners in the Local Organ Donation Regional Collaborative Excellence Awards.
The pair have championed organ donation for a number of years with Rebecca’s commitment sparked by the loss of her baby daughter Zara to meningitis seventeen years ago.
Major legislative change means from spring 2020, all adults in England will be considered as having agreed to donate their own organs when they die unless they record a decision not to donate or are in one of the excluded groups.
Those excluded will be people under 18, people who lack the capacity to understand the change and people who have lived in England for less than 12 months before their death orwho are not living here voluntarily.
Mike said: “This change was introduced in Wales in 2015 and, as a result, it went from being the worst performing region for organ donation consent to the best.”