[News Today] 40,000 waiting for organ transplant

[LEAD]
The number of patients waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in South Korea has now topped 40,000. But with fewer people choosing to donate, more than 3,000 patients are losing their lives each year before a match is found.

[REPORT]
An ambulance carrying an organ donation patient arrives at a university hospital emergency room.

The hospital will proceed to strictly assess the patient's brain death and determine the adequacy of a transplant.

Kim Hae-joo / Organ transplant coordinator
A second brain death examination, brainwave test and a related committee meeting. Only after these steps can a transplant surgery begin.

Such organ donation takes place about once each day across the country.

Donation requires consent from the family of the brain dead patient.

Lee Ye-bit / Organ donor family
She was a giving person. I believe mom would have agreed with our decision and said it was the right thing to do.

Lee Seok-jun who suffered from chronic kidney disease waited 13 years to receive a kidney transplant after which he was liberated from the painful hemodialysis treatment.

Lee Seok-jun /Kidney transplant recipient
The donor family made a big decision and I'm able to live comfortably again. I will do my best to take good care of the kidney.

The number of people on the organ transplant waitlist continues to grow from around 35-thousand in 2020 to 45-thousand last year.

On the other hand, organ donors have dropped from 478 in 2020 to below 400 last year amid the prolonged conflict between the government and medical community.

Jo Ah-reum / Korea Organ Donation Agency
It's true there are much fewer notifications and actual donations. The situation is dismal through the year's first half.

Last year, over 3,000 patients died while waiting for a transplant.