Transplantee games to open in southern Taiwan

The 2010 Taiwan Transplant Games are expected to attract over 1,100 recipients of heart, liver, kidney, lung and pancreas transplants from around the country, according to the organizer, the Transplantation Society of Taiwan.

Society President Lee Po-chang said he hopes the games, with their demonstration of how vital organ transplant survivors can be, will help arouse local people's willingness to donate organs.

The first such games took place in Taipei City in 1994.

In addition to the transplant recipients, around 300 family members of brain-dead organ donors, living organ donors and medical care personnel from 27 hospitals around Taiwan will also take part in the events, which will include badminton, table tennis and tug of war, as well as carnival games.

Addressing Taiwan's organ transplant results, Lee pointed out that the survival rate of living organ transplants for the first five years after surgery has reached 94 percent in Taiwan, while that of kidney transplants from brain-dead donors stands at 92 percent.

These are proud achievements, comparable to developed European countries and the United States, Lee said.

However, he expressed regret that the trend of organ donation is far less popular in Taiwan than in the U.S. and Europe, saying that in Taiwan, a patient sometimes has to wait 30 years for a healthy kidney.

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