This July 9, the National Transplant Day is commemorated in Paraguay. In reference to this date, the Minister of Public Health, María Teresa Barán, stressed that donating organs is donating life, and recalled that currently, about 250 people are on the waiting list needing an organ.
“Today, on National Transplant Day, my thanks to those who by choice decide to be donors, their families for accompanying this noble decision, and professionals, for their delivery in the advance of organ donation in the country. Donating organs is donating life”, said the Minister through her official account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This date recalls the first heart transplant performed in Paraguay on July 9, 1996, at the Baptist Medical Center in Asunción. The commemoration was instituted by Law No. 5603/15.
To celebrate this important day, INAT organized a series of activities. The commemoration will start at 8:00 am at the Baptist Medical Center, followed by the central act at INAT headquarters at 10:00 am.
During this event, bone marrow donor recruitment services, general health care, and specialised nutrition and endocrinology consultations will be held.
The head of the Ministry of Public Health highlighted that in Paraguay approximately 250 people are on the waiting list today, needing an organ. She argued that it should not be forgotten that for each person who decides to donate, 10 are the beneficiaries of this act, an act of donation.
Barán remarked that as the Paraguayan government, the great challenge is that transplants cannot be done only in the capital. She added that they are working so that these donations can also be made in the interior of the country.
She pointed out that in the department of Alto Paraná the first transplant was carried out in the interior of the country and that they are working so that they can be extended to other departments, in addition to urging the entire Paraguayan population to register as organ donors, through repeated use of her key message: Donating organs is donating life.
