Podcast:
ELIZABETH JACKSON: It's now more than three years since the Federal Government announced its commitment to boost Australia's organ donation level. More than $150 million has been ploughed into a new authority to make it happen. But there doesn't appear to be much to show for it.
Last year in Australia, just 300 people became organ donors and the statistics haven't really changed over the past 20 years.
Bronwyn Herbert has this report.
(Coughing)
KIMBERLEY LIVINGSTONE: Prior to transplant I knew every single breath, every single crackle, every little noise that my lungs made and how hard it was to breathe, gasping like huh, huh, huh (gasping).
I'm Kimberley Livingstone. I had a double lung transplant two and a half years ago and I'm 30 years of age. Post transplant, like, I was lying flat on the bed, which I couldn't do for months before. Breathing, talking and just not even knowing,
BRONWYN HERBERT: Kimberley Livingstone is unusual. She's one of only a few hundred Australians each year who receive a donated organ. Right now, at least 1700 people are waiting for a kidney transplant to save their life, and there's hundreds more hoping for a second chance, looking for a heart, an eye, a liver or lung.
KIMBERLEY LIVINGSTONE: By the time I got transplanted I was down to 16 per cent lung function. I was on oxygen and in a wheel chair and for a 28-year-old girl that's not very appealing.
BRONWYN HERBERT: Transplants are costly and complex. Deborah Verran leads a transplant surgical team servicing New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
To read more and listen to podcast: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3412540.htm
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