I am too old to donate my organs.

I am too old to donate my organs.

These days, the feat carried out at the University of Maryland Medicine, by transplanting a 57-year-old individual with terminal heart disease, has been disseminated on all networks; In an operation that lasted more than eight hours, David Bennet received the genetically modified heart of a pig.

This is great news, but he again raised the need for more people to decide to donate their organs in the event of death, because the shortage of organs is notable throughout the world; and then a myth arises, because adults think that they are too old to donate their organs and do not sign the donation consent certificate in case of losing their lives.

Organ transplantation is performed throughout the world and Mexico is no exception, but the lack of organs for donation is very great. The list is huge: more than 23,000 Mexicans are waiting for a transplant and it is estimated that 20 people die waiting for it every day. The report of a pig organ transplant —called Xenotransplantation— opens a possibility to increase the number of transplant recipients, but even so, there is much to be done, and it is necessary to convince more and more potential donors, regardless of their age.

The reality is that, since the middle of the last century, transplants have allowed individuals to live who otherwise would not be able to do so; In Mexico, doctors Manuel Quijano Narez and Federico Ortiz Quesada performed the first kidney transplant, and doctor Rubén Argüero the first heart transplant, and today in the country many brilliant transplantologists perform more than 39,000 transplants a year.

The interesting thing, which is sometimes unknown, is that the current technique of organ donation allows the body of a deceased person to supply the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, even the intestine and pancreas, as well as corneas, skin and bones, this means that, as the National Transplant Center (Cenatra) points out, donation is an act of human solidarity, which we can all do.

There is no defined age limit for donating organs. The decision to use the organs of someone who dies is based on strict medical criteria, not age; it is the doctors who decide at the time of death whether the organs and tissues are suitable for transplantation.

There are also no mutilations or deformations when the donation is made, since the entire procedure is carried out with the highest conditions of respect and asepsis to allow the organ to be transplanted successfully.

The General Health Law, in the Donation, Transplants and Loss of Life Chapter, has perfectly regulated donation, and if you want to be a donor, you can enter the Cenatra electronic portal and sign your card, which you will carry in your wallet; you may never have to use it, but if necessary, your life can give life to eight individuals, and this is the most worthy and humane legacy you can make.