Documentary Series | Episodes 1-4 | 2023 | rbb [de] | Germany
Main data
| Director | Carl Gierstorfer, Mareike Mueller |
|---|---|
| Production | Docdays Productions GmbH |
Project data
| Episodes from/to | 1-4 |
|---|
Brief synopsis
When a person’s organs fail, a race against time begins. Despite high-tech intensive care medicine and deep personal commitment, the doctors and nurses at Berlin’s Charité and Pauline hospitals often reach the point where they know only a donor organ can save their patients’ lives. Thus begins the anxious wait, days of not knowing if a patient will survive, because politicians and society have not yet found an answer to the acute shortage of donor organs in Germany.
Every day, three people in Germany die because they did not receive a donor organ in time. At the Pauline hospital in Berlin-Westend, patients wait for months – listed as highly urgent –for a donor heart. They can no longer leave the hospital because their condition is too critical, and they would lose their place on the waiting list. For the patients, days turn into weeks, weeks into months. They are stuck in a never-ending feeling of helplessness. Everything revolves around the question: will they hold out long enough?
Many survivors are deeply affected by this experience. As a result, some of them are now fighting for a better supply of donor organs in Germany. The series follows a kidney transplant survivor who is trying to draw the attention of legislators to the serious situation. Despite state-of-the-art transplantation medicine, patients with organ failure are treated worse in Germany than in other European countries. For many years, Germany has been at the bottom in terms of willingness to donate. Through the Eurotransplant network, which provides donor organs to patients in eight European countries, Germany benefits from the willingness of its neighbors to donate. Nevertheless, politicians up to this point have avoided making fundamental changes to existing legislation.
Without commentary or sensationalism, Inside Charité: Race Against Time documents the consequences of the organ shortage. The four-part series by Carl Gierstorfer and Mareike Müller provides a close-up depiction of the daily struggles of medical staff, the patients and those who fight for the visibility of the shortage. The series deals with one of the most pressing health policy issues of our time. In Germany, modern medicine cannot reach its full potential without the solidarity of society – and of each individual – or else there will continue to be fatal consequences.
Every day, three people in Germany die because they did not receive a donor organ in time. At the Pauline hospital in Berlin-Westend, patients wait for months – listed as highly urgent –for a donor heart. They can no longer leave the hospital because their condition is too critical, and they would lose their place on the waiting list. For the patients, days turn into weeks, weeks into months. They are stuck in a never-ending feeling of helplessness. Everything revolves around the question: will they hold out long enough?
Many survivors are deeply affected by this experience. As a result, some of them are now fighting for a better supply of donor organs in Germany. The series follows a kidney transplant survivor who is trying to draw the attention of legislators to the serious situation. Despite state-of-the-art transplantation medicine, patients with organ failure are treated worse in Germany than in other European countries. For many years, Germany has been at the bottom in terms of willingness to donate. Through the Eurotransplant network, which provides donor organs to patients in eight European countries, Germany benefits from the willingness of its neighbors to donate. Nevertheless, politicians up to this point have avoided making fundamental changes to existing legislation.
Without commentary or sensationalism, Inside Charité: Race Against Time documents the consequences of the organ shortage. The four-part series by Carl Gierstorfer and Mareike Müller provides a close-up depiction of the daily struggles of medical staff, the patients and those who fight for the visibility of the shortage. The series deals with one of the most pressing health policy issues of our time. In Germany, modern medicine cannot reach its full potential without the solidarity of society – and of each individual – or else there will continue to be fatal consequences.