Organ Donor Awareness Week

Behind every transplant, there is a laboratory and every organ transplant begins with an act of extraordinary generosity. A donor, or a donor’s family, makes a decision in the most difficult of circumstances that gives someone else a second chance at life. In 2024, 263 transplants took place in Ireland – 175 kidneys, 40 livers, 13 lungs, 9 hearts, and 4 pancreata – each one made possible by the selflessness of 84 deceased donors and 30 living donors and their families. 

Organ Donor Awarenss Week

This week is Organ Donor Awareness Week 2026, running from 16th to 23rd May, organised by the Irish Kidney Association in association with the HSE’s Organ Donation Transplant Ireland. It is a week to recognise donors and their families, to encourage conversations about donation, and to celebrate the clinical work that makes transplantation possible. 

At MSC, we want to use this moment to celebrate one part of that clinical work that rarely gets the recognition it deserves: the blood bank laboratory. 

“Each year our organ donors, both living and deceased, continue to embody the best of humanity by giving the ultimate gift of life.” 

Dr Catherine Motherway, HSE Organ Donation Transplant Ireland 

The Work That Makes Every Transplant Safe 

When a donor organ becomes available, time is critical. While surgical teams mobilise, the blood bank laboratory is already running a series of compatibility tests that determine whether the transplant can safely proceed. This work is quiet, precise, and largely invisible to patients and the public. But without it, no transplant can safely take place. 

Those tests include: 

• ABO and RhD blood group typing – donor and recipient must be compatible; an ABO-incompatible transplant carries a high risk of life-threatening rejection 

• Antibody screening and identification – the recipient’s blood is tested for antibodies that could attack the donor organ 

• Crossmatch testing – antibody levels in the recipient must fall within a safe threshold before transplant can proceed 

• Direct Antiglobulin Test (DAT) – post-transplant monitoring for signs of rejection; a positive result is an early warning that requires immediate clinical attention 

Each of these tests demands accuracy and speed. Behind every successful transplant, there is a team of medical scientists who delivered both. 

MSC supplies Werfen’s immunohaematology platforms to blood bank and transfusion laboratories across Ireland. Both instruments described below automate Werfen’s patented Capture® technology – a solid phase, IgG-specific method for the detection and identification of clinically significant antibodies to erythrocyte antigens, with more than 40 years of clinical use and thousands of instrument placements globally. Alongside the instruments, MSC supplies the full range of Werfen reagents and anti-sera – including the Capture reagent systems – that laboratories depend on every day to run these tests. 

Werfen’s sixth-generation flagship blood bank analyser, delivering the highest type and screen throughput on the market with dynamic workflow management and STAT prioritisation. Ideal for donor centres and high-volume patient laboratories. MSC installed and supports four Neo Iris analysers at the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service, which serves the whole of Northern Ireland. Across the wider United Kingdom, the Neo Iris is deployed at more than 25 blood transfusion sites – a testament to the platform’s established reputation in high-volume transfusion medicine. 

The fastest fully automated type and screen on the market today, with the world’s smallest footprint. Perfectly tailored for small to mid-sized laboratories or as a back-up system for the Neo Iris, with STAT functionality and true continuous sample access. 

The medical scientists staffing blood banks across Ireland – often in the middle of the night, without recognition – are responsible for one of the most consequential steps in the transplant pathway. Every result they issue with confidence is a step closer to a patient receiving the organ they need. We are proud to support them with instrumentation they can rely on.

This Organ Donor Awareness Week, we recognise the donors, their families, and every member of the clinical team – seen and unseen, who makes transplantation possible.If organ donation matters to you, you can register a donor card or record your wishes here.

If you would like to find out more about the Neo Iris or Echo Lumena, please reach out to our product specialists below.

References

Statistical sources: HSE Organ Donation Transplant Ireland (December 2024).