MADRID, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The number of transplants carried out in Spain increased by 10.2 percent in the first five months of 2017, while the amount of transplant activity, such as organ removal from donors, rose by 11.5 percent, according to data published by the Spanish National Transplant Organization (ONT) on Wednesday.
The ONT highlights that if the trend continues for the rest of the year, 2017 will end with over 5,000 transplants carried out in Spain, three years ahead of schedule.
The general director of the ONT Beatriz Dominguez Gil said there had been a 27 percent increase in the number of organs donated after heart failure, with 84 hospitals having the capacity to deal with this kind of donation.
"We are seeing an exceptional increase in this kind of donation," she said, adding that the period from Jan. 1 to May 15 had seen a 25 percent rise in lung transplants, a 17 percent rise in liver transplants and a 9.3 percent increase in the number of kidney transplant operations.
She also said that the start of 2017 had seen a 15 percent rise in people willing to donate bone marrow, with a current total of 323,857 donors -- a major increase on the 281,000 at the end of 2016.
However, she highlighted that 5 percent of patients still die while waiting for an operation.
