As Tomek, the mushroom poisoned six year old liver transplant patient, recovers from last Tuesday’s operation, seven out of ten Poles say they are willing to donate their organs to save the lives of complete strangers.

Doctors at the children‘s medical clinic in Warsaw say Tomek - whose life was in the balance last week after eating poisonous mushrooms and had to have an emergency liver transplant - is recovering well from his ordeal. On Friday, medical staff gradually brought the boy out of an induced coma.

“Tom is opening his eyes and follows the movements of people around him,” consultant Piotr Kaliciński from the centre told reporters on Sunday.

There was also no sign, as yet, that his body was rejecting his new liver, says the medical team.

The news of the dramatic operation to save the boy’s life has raised the issue of organ transplantation in Poland where there is often a chronic shortage of donor organs.

A survey commissioned by the Homo Homini opinion research institute for Polish Radio finds that 82 per cent of respondents would give a kidney or other organs to save the life a relative.

Seventy seven percent would take such a decision to benefit friends, while 70 per cent of Poles claim they would help total strangers in this way.

Head of the Homo Homini Institute, Marcin Duma says that Tomek’s plight could well have influenced the answers respondants gave.

“We have registered an eight percent rise in positive responses to the question [from previous surveys]. The awareness of Poles to the issue has been changing. The earlier Church campaign, Don’t Take Your Organs to Heaven, has also greatly contributed to this change,” he said. (pg/ss)