Study calls for rule change over baby organ donations

A “significant” number of newborn babies who die in intensive care in the UK could have donated organs to save another child’s life if guidance permitted, researchers claimed last night.

Current protocols are at odds with those in place in other developed countries, said the researchers from Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh).

Their study, which took place at the renowned children’s hospital’s neonatal and paediatric intensive care units between 2006 and 2012, concluded that just over half of youngsters who died could have been organ donors.

Of the 84 infants aged between 37 weeks and two months old who died, 45 (54 per cent) could have donated organs if their parents had consented, they found.

The study, which was published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, concludes that the potential for organ donation among young babies is “untapped” because of the guidelines around the way doctors define and diagnose death.

The guidance, created by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, “restricts” British doctors from diagnosing brain stem death in children who die before they are two months old, they said. A diagnosis of brain stem death is the most common scenario for successful organ donation, they said.

They said the restriction is in contrast to the rest of Europe, the United States and Australia, where medics are able to diagnose death in younger babies using brain criteria.

Because of this limitation, a UK baby in need of a life saving heart donation – which is only possible by using small newborn hearts for transplant – needs to wait until a donation is flown in from somewhere else in mainland Europe.

The researchers said that if the guideline changed, more British babies would be able to donate hearts as well as their livers, lungs, kidneys and bowels.