TODAY is National Organ Transplant Day and the 42nd anniversary of the first heart transplant.

On December 3, 1967, Prof Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, but despite the optimism created by this breakthrough, the majority of South Africans have yet to commit to becoming organ donors.

Having a kidney transplant after four years of dialysis and failing health was a lifesaver for Andile Jack, 37, of King William’s Town, in the Eastern Cape.

His 36-year-old cousin, who wishes to remain anonymous, donated one of his healthy kidneys to Jack. The operations were performed on November 3 at the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town.

“I am feeling strong and well, although I am still on doctor’s orders to rest,” Jack said yesterday. “My cousin recovered after three days in hospital and says he feels as if he had never had an operation to remove a kidney.”

Jack urged everyone in the community to become an organ donor and give others a second chance.

Organ Donor Foundation project co-ordinator Samantha Volschenk said the foundation was urgently appealing to the public to become organ donors, as there were currently more than 3000 people awaiting organ and cornea transplants in South Africa. “Tragically, fewer than 1000 people will receive transplants and the ‘gift of life’ this coming year.”

Among patients desperately needing a heart transplant is nine-month-old Lian Marais from Gauteng, who at six weeks was diagnosed with biventricular heart failure and placed on a ventilator.

His condition worsened and in September he was transferred to the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, where he is waiting for a suitable donor.

“A transplant is the only option for Lian to survive. He is the youngest of four children on the waiting list.”

Volschenk said that by informing more South Africans, the foundation hoped to increase the number of organ donors and ultimately the number of transplants performed annually. “Most organ donors are from grieving families who take comfort in the knowledge that they were able to give life to another.”

Potential donors needed to inform their next of kin about their decision, she said, as it was the family who gave final consent for organ procurement.