ONT concludes that the Abidal graft was carried out in accordance with the law – La República CE

The National Transplantation Organization (ONT) concluded that the live donor liver transplant performed on the former footballer of FC Barcelona Eric Abidal "was carried out in accordance with the law" and good clinical practice, but announces that, if the case is reopened, it will appear as a private charge.

The ONT, in collaboration with the Hospital Clinic and the Catalan Organization of Transplantation (OCATT), reviewed "each of the steps of the process" in the field of its skills, that is to say, from the clinical and health point of view, the organization informed in a statement

the director of ONT, Beatriz Domínguez, reiterated that Spain is one of the most reliable and rigorous countries in the control of donations, but that "nothing is foolproof", so she insisted on the need to "invest" And if the investigation concludes that it is necessary to make a reform "we will do it" although, he reiterated, "it is very difficult" to overcome the safety of the current filters of the transplant system. [19659004] The National Transplantation Organization initiated an internal investigation earlier this month to review the procedure followed by vi donation and subsequent transplantation of liver to footballer Eric Abidal an organ that he received, according to him and the club, from his cousin.

At the same time, the Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia carried out an inspection at the Clinical Hospital, the final report of which has not yet been

Le ONT confirmed that Abidal was on the waiting list for a deceased donor transplant and that, in the face of the progression of his disease, the team The doctor considered the option of a live donor liver transplant, which did not rule out the possibility of a deceased donor transplant if a compatible organ had appeared.

He ensured that the identities of the donor and the recipient were documented in the hospital, the first filter that the law contemplates for living donation.

And this, although the law does not require that the gift between living beings must occur in the family, knowing the relationship of kinship with the donor, this has been verified documentarily.

" In the Hospital Clinic there is a birth certificate and a family record of the donor and the recipient, from which it is deduced that they are first cousins ​​," he said. added ONT.

The donor was subjected to a "rigorous" medical-surgical and psychosocial evaluation, where the reasons for the donation and their relationship with the recipient were badyzed.

Next, the Center Ethics Committee evaluated the case with a positive resolution – a second filter necessary for these processes – which concluded to the existence of a family environment , professional, economic and social in favor of donation.

In addition, before the intervention, the cousin of Abidal appeared before the judge in charge of the civil status of Barcelona, ​​who documented the relationship between the donor and the recipient and certified that the process was carried out in a free and altruistic way, that is to say that he completed the third and last legally established filter.

The Hospital Clinic confirmed that in the Court of Civil Registry of Barcelona in which the donor appeared there is a copy of his identity document.

The communication with the donor, who speaks only French, was maintained by a member of the transplant clinic coordinating team of the Barcelona Hospital Clinic who dominates this

Despite all this, "account given the extreme seriousness of the facts denounced "and considering that their competences are limited to the clinical-health field, the ONT ] will appear as a private charge in the case where the judge decides to reopen the case.

And warns that if these facts are not studied in depth, they can generate distrust among citizens over the organ donation process, which helps save thousands of lives each year.

ONT was put at the disposal of the Office of the Prosecutor and the Civil Guard to provide them with all the information they might need about this case, and insisted on its "tolerance zero "with the organ traffic. EFE

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