A dedicated specialised support unit for organ donors, dubbed the “Life Pod”, was launched at Tygerberg Hospital last week, the first-of-its-kind facility in Africa.
The Life Pod, the brainchild of Save7, an NPO established and managed by medical students at Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, will provide specialised care for consented organ donors, maintaining their organs’ viability during the critical 12- to 36-hour period before transplant surgery.
This crucial space addresses a fundamental bottleneck in the country’s transplant system: a shortage of ICU beds that often forces potential donors to be transferred to morgues before their organs can be used to save lives.
A silent crisis
South Africa faces one of the world’s lowest organ donation rates at just 0.6%, while more than 4 000 patients await life-saving transplants. The shortage isn’t due to lack of medical expertise, but rather infrastructure limitations that prevent viable organs from reaching those who need them.
“Transplantation in South Africa is fairly stagnant,” said Professor Elmi Muller, Dean of the FMHS and past president of The Transplant Society. “We have, over the past decade, had more or less the same number of donors in the country, particularly deceased donors.
“Meanwhile, the number of patients needing transplants keeps growing, and the waiting lists have become longer.”
The Life Pod directly tackles this challenge by providing a dedicated space where brain-dead donors can be maintained without competing for scarce ICU beds needed by living patients.
“Unfortunately, ICU beds are one of the most scarce medical resources in the country,” said Jonty Wright, a fifth-year medical student and founder of Save7. “That often means that donors are left by the wayside, and seven people who would have been saved by that donor have to go and find somebody else. And they often don't."
From student initiative to medical infrastructure
Founded in 2021, Save7 has evolved from a simple awareness campaign to become the driving force behind South Africa’s first dedicated donor support unit.
“It started with a story,” said Wright. “Lynette Stuurman, a shopkeeper here at our Maties store, was a 30-year-old woman born with a genetic kidney condition. Her sister had died two years previously, awaiting a life-saving kidney transplant that never came. Now she was sitting in the exact same position, quite literally waiting to die.”
The then first-year medical students were touched by the story and decided to take action.
“We got together and said we are not going to wait until we get our medical degrees to do something about this,” said Wright.
What began as awareness campaigns in lecture halls evolved into a comprehensive approach to addressing systemic barriers in organ transplantation.
The Maties students identified that 60 viable organs were going to waste each week – organs that could save patients. Through mentorship with faculty members, particularly Professor Elmin Steyn, they recognised that the solution required more than awareness, it needed infrastructure.
Raising the R400 000 needed for the Life Pod required innovative fundraising approaches. Four students, Henri van der Westhuizen, Gerhard Niewoudt, Alexander van Wyk, and Jonty Wright, competed in Ironman 70.3 triathlons as part of their “Tri for Life” campaign, combining athletic endurance with awareness-raising for organ donation.
The project received crucial support from The Health Foundation, which matched student fundraising efforts, and Tygerberg Hospital administration provided the physical space and operational backing. The students also secured donated equipment, including specialised beds, monitors, ventilators, and essential medical lines.
Impact
Conservative estimates suggest the Life Pod will facilitate one to two donor cases per month, potentially saving more than 100 lives annually. Each donor can provide up to seven organs, dramatically expanding the pool of available transplants for patients.
The Life Pod launch represents just the beginning of Save7’s ambitions. The organisation plans to replicate the model in other provinces, with preliminary discussions already under way in Gauteng. Their ultimate goal is creating a national network of specialised donor facilities that can dramatically improve South Africa’s transplant capacity.
“We hope this project will help promote engagement with families at the end of life to counsel them about the possibilities that exist to help others… We look forward to seeing how this project can be integrated into the existing health ecosystem, supporting the need for organ and tissue donation,” said Dr David Thomson, Chairperson of the Western Cape Provincial Organ and Tissue Donation Committee within the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness.
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SA policy uncertainty a major obstacle to organ donation