Reflections on Nan’s liver transplant

Abstract

The first liver transplant in Aotearoa New Zealand took place in 1998 following the establishment of the New Zealand Liver Transplant Unit (NZLTU) at Auckland Hospital (Gane et al., 2002). From that time to 30 December 2001, 186 patients were listed for liver transplantation, 13 of whom were Māori (Gane et al., 2002). Furthermore, from 1998 to 2014 a total of 595 liver transplants were performed by the NZLTU (Munn et al., 2014). In 1999 my grandmother, Rēpora Marion Brown (1940-2017), required an emergency liver transplant at Auckland Hospital.

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Māori donate and receive fewer organs per capita than non-Māori (Lewis & Pickering, 2003). More Māori organ donors are needed (Munn et al. 2014) as “[t]he chance of a good tissue match for Maori or Pacific people is low because very few of them become cadaveric donors” (Roake, 2002, p. 2). However, cultural values and spiritual beliefs about the body and its constituents have an effect on organ donation rates for Māori (Shaw, 2010).