139 organ donation operations performed since January 2023

By Noura al Abriyah

MUSCAT: The National Organ Transplant Programme (NOTP) said that it had made several achievements during the period from January 2023 to May 2025, including a heart transplant from a brain-dead patient, 116 corneal transplants, 18 kidney transplants, four liver transplants and the diagnosis of 88 brain-dead cases.

Eleven families gave consent to donate organs from their brain-dead members and 72 families promised to consider donating an organ after the death of a family member. The NOTP paid 800 visits to intensive care patients. Reports were received from intensive care units regarding 229 suspected brain-dead cases, the NOTP said.

As part of its continued efforts, the NOTP held more than 100 events to raise community awareness of the importance of organ donation, and the number of registered users of the Shifaa app crossed 20,000. The NOTP explained that organ donation after brain death can save the lives of eight people suffering from organ failure and significantly improve their quality of life. Organs that can be donated after death include the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and pancreas as well as human tissue such as the cornea, heart valves, among others.

The NOTP indicated that organ donation after death requires a written will. In exceptional cases, a human organ or tissue may be transferred from a deceased person with the consent of their guardian and death must be definitively proven as per the regulations governing the transfer and transplantation of human organs and tissues.

Citizens and residents wishing to register as an organ donor after death can download the Ministry of Health’s Shifa app on smart devices and register on the organ donation page.

The NOTP launched a national campaign to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation. The campaign aimed to introduce the national programme, its objectives, and relevant laws. It also sought to explain the suffering of organ failure patients and present the experiences of organ donors and recipient patients. One of the most important themes the NOTP aims to convey to community members through the campaign is raising awareness of the causes of organ failure and how to prevent and control these causes, primarily diabetes and chronic hypertension.

The NOTP warned against the dangers of dealing with the black markets to buy human organs. The campaign also aimed to build an effective partnership between various relevant sectors and to clarify how these sectors support organ failure patients, living organ donors and the families of organ donors after brain death. It also aimed to explain the concept of brain death by specialists and to refute rumors related to organ transplantation.

The campaign covered all governorates of the Sultanate of Oman during which direct meetings were held with health officials, health sector workers, dialysis centres, intensive care doctors and nurses and lectures were delivered to health workers to introduce the National Transplant Programme.