Istanbul bridge illuminated for organ donation

ISTANBUL

The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, one of the three bridges connecting Istanbul’s European and Asian sides, was illuminated in green to draw attention to organ donation on Nov. 9.

Within the scope the Organ Donation Week, celebrated between Nov. 3 and Nov. 9 every year, different kinds of activities are carried out to mark the importance of organ donation.

This year, the bridge was illuminated all night until the morning of Nov. 10.

According to the latest official data from 2019, the number of organ donators is around 500,000 across the country. The western province of İzmir took the lead with some 67,000 donators, while Istanbul and Kocaeli followed.

Turkish women are more sensitive to this issue than men as the percentage of women donators is around 51.03, whereas the men’s is 48.97 percent.

The number of organ donations and transplants nosedived in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Officials are now trying to promote organ donation more this year to increase the rate up.

“Organ transplantation procedures dropped by 50 percent in 2020. But we had a good recovery in the first six months of 2021,” said Eyüp Kahveci, the head of the Turkish Organ Transplant Association.

In 2019, the number of organs transplanted was some 9,548. It fell to some 5,502 in 2020. Some 3,703 organs were transplanted in the first six months of 2021, giving hope to the association that the demand for organ donation is increasing again. 

“I think we will go beyond our recent performance in 2022 in both organ donations and transplantations,” Kahveci added.