Background: Turkey and especially the Istanbul region are becoming increasingly cosmopolitan. As a result of this fact, the number of different country citizens who are admitted to the intensive care units of hospitals to benefit from health services is increasing.
Aim: The aim of this research, which was planned to determine the progress of the process following the diagnosis of brain death cases, is to quantitatively assess the number of foreign cases diagnosed with brain death in intensive care units of the Istanbul Regional Coordination Center.
Methods: A total of 2065 brain death cases between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2016 were investigated retrospectively in all the hospitals within the Istanbul Regional Coordination Center. The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Turkey, Organ and Tissue Transport Services Department received permission from the Ministry of Health for the purpose of reviewing the data obtained from the Turkish Organs and Tissue Information System (TODS). Data were analyzed using number, percentage and frequency analyzes.
Results: As a result of the analyzes, it was determined that 74 of the 2065 brain death cases identified in the intensive care units of the hospitals in Istanbul Regional Coordination Center were foreign nationals. Of these 74 cases, only 23 were able to have a family interview and 51 other family members could not be reached, so no family interviews were made with these cases. In 20 of the 23 family interviews the families rejected the organ donation. Only three family interviews were positive, a Chinese, an Iranian, and a Syrian family agreed to donate their relatives' organs. The organs of Chinese and Iranian cases were delivered to the appropriate buyers via the system. In case Syrian wanted to donate a family organ, it was not harvesting with the decision of the National Coordination Center of the Ministry of Health and the organs were not presented to the system.