SPAIN continues to be the world leader in organ transplants - for the 23rd year running.
Ahead of the USA and the whole of the European Union, the country has 35.3 donors per million inhabitants, and carried out 4,279 of these delicate and often life-saving operations last year.
Among those who have gone through this type of surgery, patient Juan Vicente del Álamo, from the northern region of La Rioja, is one of only two people in the world who has survived three heart transplants.
Juan Vicente's book, Ace of hearts, has been published and is due for release in October and, in it, he hopes to raise awareness of the importance of placing one's name on the donor register to help give life to others after one's own death.
According to the National Transplant Organisation, a total of 1,655 people donated their organs in 2013 including, in some cases, live donors.
Whilst the EU has 19.5 donors per million inhabitants - a long way behind the USA's 25.8 - Spain is ahead of the field by a long way.
In fact, 14% of all transplants in Europe are carried out in Spain, and 4% of all those in the world.
World Health Organisation (WHO) sources say a 115,000 of these operations were conducted in 2013, which is 10% of all those needed on the planet.
Spain 'fitted' 2,552 new kidneys, of which 15% were from live donors, plus 1,093 liver transplants, 249 heart transplants, 285 using lungs, 92 with pancreas and eight new intestines.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.COM