Organ donations have increased by 20 percent in Greece since August, when the parents of Doujon Zammit, the Australian tourist murdered on Myconos, decided to offer their son’s organs to save the lives of four people.

A medical conference in Thessaloniki will hear tomorrow how more Greeks are signing up to donate their or their loved ones’ organs but that rates are still low compared to other European countries and facilities are inferior.

The head of the intensive-care unit at the Ippocrateio Hospital in Thessaloniki, Nicoletta Geroyianni, told Kathimerini that it costs the Greek state 300,000 euros each time someone goes abroad for a transplant, while the cost of having one in Greece is 22,000 euros.

She said that the number of rooms for transplant patients at her hospital has been reduced from 10 to seven over the last 18 months due to a lack of specialized staff.