A liver transplant operation is performed at Children's Hospital in Ha Noi. The country's organ shortage puts many patients in a dire situation. (Photo: VNS)

"Some of my relatives volunteered to donate their kidney, but their organs were not compatible with him," she said.

"We do not know what to do now apart from wait for a miracle and hope that someone voluntarily donates a kidney," said Phuc, a farmer from northern Thai Nguyen Province.

The country's organ shortage puts many patients like Phuc's husband in a dire situation.

Few people are organ donors in Viet Nam, but demand for organs that would be used for transplant operations is on the rise.

According to the Health Ministry, there are an estimated 500,000 patients that need to undergo transplant operations nationwide. With the available supply of organs, doctors are able to administer about only 400 operations a year.

Viet Nam passed a law concerning organ donations in 2006, under which Vietnamese citizens aged 18 and older have the right to donate their tissue or organs.

However, the country's organ supply remains limited.

The law offered favourable conditions for donors, including providing them with free health care services, health insurance and priority to have a transplant operation when necessary, said Chairman of the Viet Nam Heart Institute Doctor Nguyen Lan Viet.

"It is clear that Vietnamese people still hold to their cultural beliefs that an individual's body should remained untouched after death," said Viet. "Currently, doctors are unable to remove organs from brain dead donors - an important supply source - because their family members still hesitate to allow their organs to be donated."

The Ha Noi-based Viet Duc Hospital, which treats a large number of patients who were injured in traffic accident, reports that there are between 800-1,000 fatalities caused by traumatic brain injuries each year. Most of these patients at some point undergo a period where no brain activity is recorded.

During the past three years since the law was implemented, 17 patients underwent transplant operations, where the organs came from donors who had no brain activity.

"People are unaware, which is another reason why there is a shortage because people are still afraid that if they donate an organ there health will be put in jeopardy," Viet said.

Therefore, most patients receive tissue and organs from living donors, who are primarily relatives or close friends of the patient in need.

However, Professor Nguyen Nguyen Khoi from Ha Noi-based Bach Mai Hospital's Dialysis Department said organs donated by family members or relatives accounted for about 5 per cent of the demand.

"Many patients receive organ transplants abroad, but poor patients are unable to afford such luxuries," he said.

A kidney transplant operation in Viet Nam costs about US$10,000, while the procedure costs more than $30,000 in other countries in the region.

Doctor Viet pointed to the need for the Party, State and mass organisations to create and promote policies that encourage donors and raise the public's awareness of organ donation.

"Information dissemination and education should be further promoted to raise public awareness," he said.

Deputy health minister Nguyen Thi Xuyen announced at a recent conference concerning organ transplants in Viet Nam that Viet Nam would establish a co-ordination centre and national association for organ transplants this year.

Last year, a man from Phu Tho Province donated part of his kidney to save a 18-year-old patient at the Ha Noi-based National Paediatrics Hospital. But what makes the story unique is that the two men had no blood relation. The operation was successfully carried out in October last year.

Vu Quoc Tuan, who is a motorbike attendant at the hospital, was willing to donate part of his organ to save a stranger's life.

"As a father, I understand what Ha (the recipient's parents had to suffer after seeing their daughter's health deteriorate day after day, so I decided to donate part of my kidney," said Tuan. "My family members were supportive of my decision to donate my kidney, but the most important thing is that my kidney helped save the girl's life."

If there were more donors like Tuan, many patients like Phuc's husband, whose health continues to get worse, would have hope of being saved.

Viet Nam's first kidney transplant was successfully conducted in 1992 and 12 years later doctors in the country performed the first liver graft surgery.

Last June, doctors from Hospital 103 in Ha Noi successfully performed the country's first heart transplant surgery on a 48-year-old man.

There are now 11 hospitals that conduct organ transplant operations.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News