Hector Sanchez could finally claim to be an international football champion when his side defeated Spain 5-1, but not in the manner he had imagined as a youngster. Doctors had long advised the Chile car salesperson not to enter the industry after he was diagnosed with a liver condition in his childhood. After two liver transplant procedures, Sanchez won the Transplant Football World Cup in September alongside a team of 20 other organ donor recipients.
“If it weren’t for the transplant, I might not be here,” he told AFP during a recent charity game in Santiago, Chile.
He want to share this chance with others. Even if the Chilean team won the World Cup, others in their position face difficult circumstances at home.
Despite progressive laws on the subject, organ donation rates are still low.
Sanchez, 31, believes that encouraging organ donation via athletics is how he will give back for his “second chance at life.”
Legal changes are insufficient
However, a lot of individuals continue to refuse, to the extent that Chile’s transplant rate of 10 per million is around half that of Uruguay, the area leader (19.7 per million).
World top Spain has a donor rate of 48.9 per million, whereas the European Union has a rate of 20.9 per million.
The legislation is part of the issue: in Spain, for instance, organ donations from recently deceased individuals, such as those who pass away unexpectedly after a heart attack, but in Chile, only brain-dead patients are eligible donors.
Cultural factors also play a role, since families frequently forbid surgeons from harvesting healthy organs from their departed loved ones for transplantation.
According to Ruth Leiva, chief of the transplant unit at San Jose Hospital, “many people think that (the corpse) will have its eyes gouged out,” leaving the body desecrated.
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