TRANSPLANT surgeons are to be given the legal right to keep patients’ organs artificially alive after their death without consent.

This will give doctors time to win permission from relatives to remove kidneys, livers and lungs for transplant.

The change in the law, to be introduced next April, is likely to lead to a surge in the availability of transplant organs. At present there is an acute shortage of kidneys.

Under current rules, doctors are vulnerable to litigation if they intervene without consent, such as a signed donor card.

To keep a dead patient’s organs viable they must administer cooling and preservative solutions through tubes. Without such intervention the organs would start to deteriorate within 10 to 15 minutes.

The procedure can keep the organs viable in the body for up to four hours. Under the change, doctors can keep the organs viable for that time while they seek consent from absent relatives for transplant. If the relatives agree, the organs will be removed for donation.

The change is contained in a clause of the Human Tissue Act, which comes into force in April. Doctors predict it could eventually lead to enough kidneys being available to clear the waiting list of 5,600.

Under the current system, most organs are donated by patients on life support machines who die after suffering irreversible brain damage. After such a death is confirmed the patient’s heart can continue to beat for up to a week if kept on life support, giving time to secure consent for donation. These patients are called “heartbeating” donors.

When a patient dies suddenly from another cause, such as a heart attack, the remaining healthy organs can be used only if they are treated almost immediately with the cooling and preservative solutions. These patients are known as “non-heartbeating” donors.

Until three years ago few organs were received from people whose heart had stopped immediately on death. However, new funding by UK Transplant, the authority that runs transplants, meant that staff were made available to act in the short time available. In the past five months 100 such transplants have taken place.

In most of these cases relatives were present at death or prior to death and thus were able to give consent for organ donation. But from April even if the relatives have not been consulted, doctors will be able to preserve the organs in the body in an attempt to secure such consent. This, according to doctors, is likely to lead to an increase in kidney donations from non-heartbeating donors to an annual 600.

Chris Watson, honorary consultant surgeon at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, said: “When a patient comes into casualty doctors will do all they can to resuscitate. If the patient is certified dead the transplant team will be invited to (keep) the organs viable. The change in the law will help us in the case of the majority who haven’t registered their wish.”

Chris Rudge, medical director of UK Transplant, added: “Under the current law there is uncertainty whether we can preserve the organs without consent. It is a real grey area.

“In the past, relatives have been distressed when they have found out that a procedure has been carried out on their loved one. Others have been upset that the opportunity to donate has been lost.”

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