As many people in Germany don't care to think about donating organs, health care providers are expected to start approaching members and ask them to make up their minds. But is this likely to boost organ donations?
A bunch of tubes connect Jürgen Stouwe's body to a beeping black machine. The 51-year-old needs this apparatus to keep his heart beating. His eyes are alert, but every once in while his voice breaks as he speaks.
"I was physically fit. I went skiing and biking and high alpine trekking," he said. "But it started going downhill in the last two years."
Stouwe is just one of 256 patients who are waiting for a suitable donor heart at Europe's largest cardiac center in Bad Oeynhausen. Five of them are not even 16 years old.
A bunch of tubes connect Jürgen Stouwe's body to a beeping black machine. The 51-year-old needs this apparatus to keep his heart beating. His eyes are alert, but every once in while his voice breaks as he speaks.
"I was physically fit. I went skiing and biking and high alpine trekking," he said. "But it started going downhill in the last two years."
Stouwe is just one of 256 patients who are waiting for a suitable donor heart at Europe's largest cardiac center in Bad Oeynhausen. Five of them are not even 16 years old.
"Some of the patients have been waiting for an organ donation for two years or more," said Jan Gummert, Director of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in Bad Oeynhausen. People on the "urgent waiting list" usually wait about three months, he said.
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