ARGENTINA: Santa Fe Creates School Donor Week, Doubles Donation Processes, Pioneers Adult Heart Retrieval

Santa Fe Province Achieves Latin American First With heart Procurement After Circulatory Arrest

WORLD NEWS – ARGENTINA: Santa Fe province has enacted Law 14441 establishing a dedicated organ donation week in May and has positioned education and public awareness at the center of its transplantation strategy. Officials say the framework recognizes that procurement begins in society, not just inside hospitals, and aims to embed donation conversations across schools and community programs.

Over the past four years the province reports it has doubled the number of donation processes, and in 2025 surpassed its historic annual record with 178 donors. In October 2025 teams carried out the province’s first donation after circulatory arrest that permitted procurement of a heart for transplantation in an adult — a milestone described as the first such adult case in Latin America.

Last year’s activity involved 30 distinct institutions across public and private sectors, and Santa Fe has increased participation among private providers to levels above the national average. The province now supplies one in eight Argentine donors and enables roughly one in seven transplants performed nationwide, with a per capita transplantation rate about twice the national figure.

Health leaders credit sustained training, inter-institutional coordination and a strengthened procurement network for turning previously improbable procedures into practice. They say Santa Fe’s model demonstrates how a public health system can make organ and tissue procurement an indicator of quality and expand opportunities for life through transplantation.

Video originally published on 2026-05-29 08:51:52