The relatives of 20-year-old Jayson Baudains, who collapsed and died in hospital in August hours after visiting his GP with stomach pains, say they have been left upset and frustrated because, they claim, they have received no information about what happened to Mr Baudains’s organs.
The amateur surfer was on the organ donation register and a team from the UK was due to fly over to collect his organs while he was kept on life support. However, the family understand the organs were never used and claim they only know that through correspondence with a ‘third party’ at the Hospital.
Speaking generally, a Health Department spokesman said organs from a registered donor might not be used for a variety of reasons, such as ‘logistics’ in getting a transplant team to Jersey, ‘the discovery of a condition that meant the organs were unsuitable or issues regarding family members and consent’.
Last year, organs from three donors were harvested in Jersey and used in nine different patients in the UK.
The spokesman added that he could not comment on specific cases but did say ‘a letter is routinely sent to all families’ involved in organ donation ‘in order to explain the process and seek their feedback’.
Now Basil Carré, Mr Baudains’s grandfather, has met St Ouen Deputy Richard Renouf to discuss the case and the family’s concerns. The pensioner said: ‘We had no communication from Health or the NHS the minute they declared they were switching his life support off.’
Deputy Renouf confirmed that he was looking into the case and added: ‘Speaking more generally, the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel will need to consider whether to carry out a Scrutiny review of the organ donation legislation which the Health Minister is proposing. Any such review would investigate the processes involved.’
Health Minister Andrew Green announced last month that he would look to bring forward proposals to introduce an opt-out organ donation scheme in the Island. Such a move would probably drastically increase the number of donors in the Island. There are approximately 14,000 people residing in the Jersey postcode area on the UK Organ Donor Register – about 13 per cent of the population. In comparison, about 30 per cent of the population in the UK have signed up to the register.
Mr Carré called in the JEP last month for more information to be released about the procedures that are required when a loved one who is a registered donor is on their death bed.
John Forsythe, associate medical director for organ donation and transplantation for NHS Blood and Transplant, and a Health spokesman urged donors to talk to their families about their wishes.
