In 2020, organ transplants fell by 25% compared to the previous year. And it is kidney transplants that have particularly marked the blow: -29% in 2020.

This is the case of Thomas Leonetti, 34, awaiting a kidney transplant. He spends six days a week in the hospital performing hemodialysis sessions: “Every day, I leave with the physiological constraints linked to dialysis, that is to say fatigue, etc. It is true that today, I am both tired, upset and I am angry at not having visibility on this. We begin, little by little, to move to resignation“, he testifies.

16,000 patients waiting

For patient associations, it is necessary “that all means be implemented to guarantee patients that they can be transplanted if, however, a transplant occurs. And today this is not the case, we do not have this guarantee“, accuses Magali Léo, head of advocacy at Renaloo.

Today 16,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant, but the Biomedicine Agency wishes to reassure. In the first quarter of 2021, 96 more transplants were performed compared to the same period in 2020, mostly kidney transplants. With the 3rd wave, the number of transplants gradually returns to normal.