An image for illustrative purposes. [123RF]
An image for illustrative purposes. [123RF]

An average of 8.6 patients died every day last year while waiting for an organ transplant, with the total number of deaths on transplant waiting lists rising 27 percent over the past five years.

People Power Party lawmaker Baek Jong-heon of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee said Wednesday that data obtained from the Korea Organ and Tissue Agency showed the number of patients who died while awaiting a transplant climbed 27.1 percent, from 2,480 in 2021 to 3,152 last year.

The annual death toll dipped slightly from 2,919 in 2022 to 2,909 in 2023, but surpassed 3,000 for the first time in 2024 and has continued to rise since.

Based on last year's figures, approximately 8.6 people died each day while waiting for an organ transplant.

By organ type, patients awaiting kidney transplants accounted for the largest share of deaths.

Of last year's total, 1,739 — or 55.2 percent — were waiting for a kidney. More than 1,000 others, or 33.7 percent, died while awaiting a liver transplant.

The supply-demand imbalance has worsened as the number of people on transplant waiting lists has grown while the number of brain-dead organ donors has fallen.

Over the same five-year period, the number of patients on transplant waiting lists grew 18.6 percent, from 39,261 to 46,550, while the number of brain-dead donors dropped 16.3 percent, from 442 to 370.

"Organ transplantation is a treatment that gives patients a new and healthy life, but right now countless patients are dying while waiting indefinitely for an organ," Baek said. "The government must go beyond simply raising public awareness about organ donation and put in place concrete measures to boost donations — including identifying potential donors and strengthening the donation referral systems at medical institutions."


husn7@heraldcorp.com