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"My brother saved my life": Award for an ambassador for organ donation

2023-01-27T08:16:09.752Z


Great joy in the Bad Heilbrunn specialist clinic: a long-standing patient was honored by Minister of Health Holotschek - an important sign for the topic of organ donation.


Great joy in the Bad Heilbrunn specialist clinic: a long-standing patient was honored by Minister of Health Holotschek - an important sign for the topic of organ donation.

Bad Heilbrunn

- Dr.

Doris Gerbig, an expert in transplantation aftercare at the Bad Heilbrunn specialist clinic, sounds the alarm: the number of organ donations is declining, and there is an urgent need for action.

She is therefore pleased that the award of one of her patients with the "White Angel" has brought the topic back into focus.

White Angel for commitment to organ donation

Hermann Anwander is now a regular guest at the m&i specialist clinic in Bad Heilbrunn.

Since his kidney transplant in 2012, the 71-year-old from Garching an der Alz (district of Altötting) has been here every year for aftercare rehabilitation and maintains a continuous exchange with the chief physician of the nephrology/transplant aftercare department, Dr.

Doris Gerbig.

The doctor is therefore particularly pleased that Anwander has now received a great honor.

The Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holotschek awarded him the “White Angel”.

From Gerbig's point of view, this award is not only well-deserved, but also sends out a message that is more important than ever.

He is a "prime example of what a transplant can do," says the doctor about the 71-year-old.

And he himself speaks of himself as "the living example that a transplant brings something".

Anwander suffered from a hereditary kidney disease that led to kidney failure and severe breathing problems.

"My brother saved my life," says the retired chief inspector.

Because Josef Anwander, three years his senior, donated one of his kidneys to him.

Ten years after organ donation: "I'm doing very well"

From a state in which he had lost his zest for life and gave himself only half a year, Hermann Anwander found his way back into an everyday life "that is worth living and that was worth fighting for", as he says.

"I'm doing very well," he reported in a phone call to our newspaper.

“I ride my bike, go into the forest to cut wood, can do something with my grandchildren and am on the board of small animal breeding and gardening associations.”

However, Anwander received the “White Angel” for his diverse commitment to the topic of organ donation.

In the laudatory speech, it was emphasized, among other things, that the Garchinger passed on his experiences in the book "For and Wi(e)der die Transplantation", had 1000 postcards printed and to sensitize people to the topic of organ donation.

He is an active member of a self-help group, sets up information stands and is an ambassador for the annual organ donation run that started in Bad Heilbrunn last year (we reported).

"I always have information material and organ donor cards with me," he says.

Specialist clinic Bad Heilbrunn is sounding the alarm when it comes to organ donation

The "White Angel", which is awarded for special voluntary commitment in the areas of health and care, makes Anwander personally proud.

But it also means a lot to him because the award comes at a time when his subject urgently needs more public attention.

"The number of organ donations is declining," says Doris Gerbig.

Corona, the Ukraine war or climate change: the news is dominated by crises that affect everyone's life.

"It's more difficult to get through with the topic of organ donation," she says.

Only a small part of the total population is directly affected.

"In Germany there are around 23,000 kidney transplant recipients and 90,000 dialysis patients," says the chief physician.

Nevertheless, she makes it clear: "Anyone can find themselves in a situation where they need an organ transplant in order to survive." A car accident, for example, can also seriously damage a kidney.

The probability of needing a donor organ is ten times higher than of being a donor yourself - which is only the case when

Organ donation: objection solution is back in the discussion

In view of the lack of organ donations, there is an urgent need for action from Gerbig's point of view.

"If things continue like this, organ donations may soon no longer be made at all," she warns.

Transplantation medicine is a highly specialized area that is associated with high upfront costs for the clinics involved.

"If such an operation then only happens very rarely, the clinics will consider whether they should still offer it at all.

For those affected, that would be an absolute catastrophe.”

Both Dr.

Gerbig and Hermann Anwander therefore welcome the fact that Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to reform the transplantation law.

His goal is to introduce the contradiction solution after all.

So far, only those who have given their express consent during their lifetime – for example by means of an organ donor card – or whose relatives have decided in favor of the deceased are considered donors.

"In many other European countries, the opt-out solution applies," emphasizes Anwander.

In other words, it is assumed that a person is willing to donate organs after brain death, unless they have expressly objected to this beforehand.

In 2019, such a regulation failed in the Bundestag.

From Gerbig's point of view, it is at least reasonable for everyone to

"People like Hermann Anwander are worth their weight in gold"

The transplantation expert believes that people like Hermann Anwander, who “present the perspective of an affected person completely authentically to the public, are worth their weight in gold”.

"That's why the award is more than deserved," she says.

And for herself, who was invited to the ceremony in Munich, it was "a very moving moment".

You can find more current news from the region around Bad Tölz at Merkur.de/Bad Tölz.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-01-27

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