Purpose: To evaluate organ donation consent rates and the impact of compassionate, family-centered interventions implemented by the HAYAT program in the UAE between January to April 2025. The program introduced a structured care bundle to improve family engagement during end-of-life discussions, featuring early involvement of trained personnel for timely, clear prognosis communication. It integrated specialized social work and grief counseling, flexible intensive care unit (ICU) visitation policies, and culturally and linguistically matched specialists to build trust, enhance communication, and support families in making informed decisions.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of organ donor family records was conducted. Data included demographics (age, gender, nationality) approach characteristics (duration, number of approaches, involvement of subject matter experts), and consent outcomes. Descriptive statistics were used to compare consented and non-consented groups, with consent rates analyzed across key variables.
Results: The overall organ donation consent rate was 44.3% (43/97). The top three nationalities approached were Indian, Pakistani, and Filipino, which correlate with the current demographic distribution of the country. The Filipino group showed the highest consent rate (73%), followed by Pakistani (66%) and Indian (59%). Mean age was comparable between the consented (43.7 years) and non-consented (44.6 years) groups. Among the consented donors, 63% were of Islamic faith and 77% were male. In 69% of consented cases, families exercised their right for organ donation between 2 or less than 2 days from the breaking bad news. 37.2% of the families consented in the first approach (16/43), nevertheless the remaining 60.5 % of the donor families required 2 to 3 approaches for their decisions.
Conclusions: The United Arab Emirates’ diverse population of over 200 nationalities presents unique challenges and opportunities for organ donation consent. The HAYAT Organ Donation Program addresses this with a culturally sensitive, tailored approach supporting families after a diagnosis of death by neurological criteria. Its compassionate care bundle featuring early family engagement, grief support, religious and language-matched communication, and counselling aims to improve emotional readiness and reduce distress. Early findings suggest these strategies may increase consent rates, though further research is needed to evaluate their long-term effectiveness and key contributors in this multicultural context.