Every two years, Corporación del Trasplante Board, evaluate and decide if their members keep on their Directory staff or changes people. This year, there was a change at the President ‘s level: MD Javier Dominguez C., urologist surgeon and Head of Kidney Transplant Program at Hospital Sótero del Río, at southeast of Santiago. Dr. Dominguez  entered Corporación del Trasplante Board in 2001 as a General Secretary, then in 2003 he became as a Vice President. He is married with a psychiatrist, they have 3 girls, from 10 to a year and a half, he enjoys reading books, travels and his main hobby – unfortunately the one less done- is diving.

How do you get involved in transplantation?
Because of the scientific area, transplants are in the border of medicine. Since the scientific view is something beyond you usually do, as a doctor you repair a body, but with transplants you repair a function with something coming from another person, in other words you are using exogenous elements to fixed it. Besides, the discovering of immunosuppressant drugs, treatments, and about all the investigation is coming, it means a work at high level and is always a  “end of arrow” for investigation and science. Thus, plus all the human work behind transplants , something it was developed later for me, are the reasons I enchanted this job.

Is there any human case had impacted you more?
Truly honestly, I must say there was no one. My conscious had been related with all the mankind means, since I was practicing surgery at University for Urologist Unit, then there was a young potential donor and I had to talked to his family and asked for donation and then followed that case. That was the first of several else but is the first I can remember with my direct and own  participation in it, and that was remarkable not only for the scientific view, also for the human aspects on it involved.

How long have you been in this area?
One of the reasons I wanted to become an Urologist , was because at Medicine School of Universidad Católica, kidneys transplants were made by Urologists an their role was essential not only in surgery but with the post treatment drugs, educational transplanted programs and so on. Since that moment I realized how deep transplants were in my soul.

How is this period of time between your enter to Corporación del Trasplante until you became its President?
Faster in a continuous way, being President means nothing new or strange, I must keep myself working as hard as today but now from a status with more view and responsibility. The importance are the tasks we could achieve in this period with all the Corporación’s team. This team is much more important than me, in many opportunities.

What means for you in personal and professional terms being Corporación del Trasplante’s President?
I’m not here for the position, the meaning goes with the goals we would get based in my role and with the support of all the people here, people more important than me by the way.

How do you visualize the relationship with Ministry of Health?
We must overcome barriers ideologist, which would be also personal, in order to obtain confidence from the Ministry because we both go in the same way, we have the same objectives and we must work closed to get those goals.
In Corporación del Trasplante we have the know how, the expertise in this area- organ donation and procurement- so if they do not consider us, their results would not be the ideals. This is a complex issue, we must discuss about it, and I see it as a difficult mission, based in the last years experience.

What do you think about the legal initiative to change the character of express donor to presumed donor ? Do you think it helps to increase organ donation?
I think it helps nothing, because now we are using presumed donor in Chile, I mean, there is no person in our country, whose relative had been organ donor, without a family authorization, and the project talks about all Chilean people is organ donor  but you must ask family to accept or refuse donation, and that is exactly our acting this last 15 years¡¡¡, we always asked families, independent donor opinion, family has the last word. All this discussion about law, only makes confused to people, doubts would be bigger for people, it wouldn’t increase organ donation.

What’s your opinion in confidentiality of organ donors and transplant patients identification?
I would like to be absolutely clear about  to forbid donor relatives know who were the   transplanted receptor or transplanted people meet his/her donor family. This would not happened by any circumstance in order to affect transparency or tranquility of donor family. We must respect donor family and receptor.
I agree in having a mediator, until now Corporación del Trasplante had made that role in order to being a link between families, but I had been always scared about it.

How do you evaluate contact with mass media professionals?
Relationship between journalists and our people must go in an excellent tune, we must be nourished of them, all ways. But is very important to assume an educative role , not only to people, but also to media professionals. It is necessary to emphasize to be very careful in the form to handle news related with transplants, because is delicate and involved too many people and too many complex things.
            The example most complex for me is, when families appeared at media asking for an organ to one of his relatives, thus because I think this means an unsuitable pressures.

Which would be Corporación del Trasplante position faced to this “emblematic cases”, specially when media is ready to published them?
We should not be involved in those cases, no way. We ought to educate, motivate all that people working at media, given them our opinion about those “cases” do not promote donation, do not help for a donation program in a near by future. If you analyzed all  the “cases”, donation had not raised during that period of time. So, I try to look for a low profile.

Do you have any project or new initiative for Corporación del Trasplante?
There are two relevant issues I would like to develop. The first one, has relation with the necessary fact to get a recognition from Ministry of Health about the main role Corporación del Trasplante had done all this years improving a procurement program to obtain organs and tissues all over our country. Or the other option is that our results, expertise and know how, would be taken by authorities of health and could be implemented by them as a transplant organization. Any one of the options is good for me.
The second project is more personal and it is necessary needs a review at the Directory Board, and is a subject we have not pay attention yet and is to promote living organ donation, specially in kidney transplant, I think we have lost it as source of organs and with important repercussions at the society, in the way you give an organ of your own and faced a risk in live, giving an organ.
This is something we have to promote, because its beauty, and because of the applicants in patient health, the organ long survival, the financial costs, and another factors, it given several benefits.

In this context, what do you expect of your new team at Corporación del Trasplante?
They must talk to me , open and honestly, if I am doing right or wrong job, I want to know it, and they are volunteer to say it, specially if I could damage this institution.