EL NACIONAL, LA JORNADA (Mexico)
MEXICO CITY - What if that kidney you needed for a transplant showed up, but the surgeon didn't? That scenario is too often a reality in Mexico, says Arturo Dib Kuri, the director of the country's National Transplant Center (CENATRA).
Dib Kuri warned that Mexico loses around 20 percent of donated organs from dead donors due to lack of qualified medical personnel to do transplants, La Jornada reported.
Only 406 hospitals in Mexico are equipped to do transplants, Dib Kuri says, noting that the country needs at least 500 transplant-capable hospitals, La Jornada reported. At the moment, there are slightly more than 16,500 people in Mexico waiting for organ transplants.
This news comes as Facebook unveiled their tool to have "organ donor" status appear as part of the Facebook profile in Mexico. The social networking company says it is convinced that this new tool will save lives, La Nacional reported.
But Dib Kuri says that the problems surrounding organ donation in Mexico are not from lack of organ donors, but inability to take advantage of the organs that are available because of lack of specialized facilities and staff.
