Organ transplants slump during Covid-19 pandemic
There has been an 85 percent drop in organ transplants over the past two months as hospitals have focused their resources primarily on responding to patients infected with Covid-19, prominent Greek nephrologists have said.
According to the president of the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Ioannis Boletis, who is also a professor of nephrology at Athens University, and assistant professor Smaragdi Marinaki, live donor transplants stopped with the onset of the pandemic, while only one organ donation was conducted in the period from March to April, from a deceased patient who donated his heart and kidneys.
Comparatively, in the same two-month period of 2019, there were 15 organ donors.
Meanwhile, the Hellenic Ophthalmological Society has appealed for hospital ophthalmology units to resume operations for people with retinal spots and corneal ulcers, noting that many patients are at risk of losing their sight.
