Four out of five donor hearts for Swiss children come from abroad
Keystone / Martial Trezzini
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Four out of five donor hearts for Swiss children come from abroad
Four out of five donor hearts which are transplanted into Swiss children come from outside the Alpine country, according to the director of Swisstransplant.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Vier von fünf Spenderherzen für Kinder kommen aus dem Ausland
Original
The mortality rate of children who need a donor heart has fallen to 15%, Franz Immer, the director of Swisstransplant, told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper on Saturday.
When he started at the organisation around 16 years ago, the mortality rate for children who needed a donor heart was still 80%.
Between 350 and 400 organs are listed on the European platform of the European organisation Foedus every year, Immer said. The most common organs are hearts, followed by lungs and livers. The organisation was founded because it is often not possible to find a recipient, especially for children in their own country.
Four hours transport
Last year, Switzerland imported 45 organs and exported 26 organs, said Immer. The aim is to keep exports and imports in balance. Transporting an organ costs around CHF20,000, depending on the distance. “It shouldn’t take more than four hours to transport a heart,” said Immer.
He explained that a heart transplant costs around CHF150,000, while a kidney transplant costs CHF60,000. Dialysis, on the other hand, costs CHF100,000 a year. “With 300 transplants, the potential savings amount to half a billion francs per year,” Immer estimates.
All-time high
Last year, more organs were donated in Switzerland than ever before. A total of 675 people on the waiting list received an urgently needed organ in 2023.
In 2022, the Swiss electorate approved the so-called extended opt-out solution. It is expected to come into force in 2026. This means that all people who have not refused to donate an organ during their lifetime will be considered organ donors. A person’s relatives can still prevent the removal of organs.
Translated from German by DeepL/sb
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Life & Aging
Zurich: how the world capital of housing shortages is tackling the problem
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
In Switzerland more people are being referred to electrical therapies or psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Are there similar approaches where you live?
Ex-sect member sentenced in Zurich for sexual abuse
This content was published on
Zurich District Court has sentenced a former member of the globally active sect "Children of God" to a partial prison sentence.
SNB chairman does not rule out slowdown in Swiss growth
This content was published on
Martin Schlegel, chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), does not rule out a weakening of the Swiss economy in light of the tariff dispute.
Swiss NGOs abroad to receive 10% less federal funding
This content was published on
In 2025 and 2026, Swiss NGOs will have 10% less federal funding available for international cooperation than in the previous two-year period.
Swiss parties spent less than CHF1 million on February green vote
This content was published on
Swiss political parties spent CHF 700,000 ($840,000) on campaigns in the run-up to the overwhelmingly defeated vote on February 9, according to the Swiss Federal Audit Office.
This content was published on
Swisswool, the largest Swiss wool processor, is not accepting any wool for the first time this spring. For many sheep farmers, the only option is to get rid of the wool.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.