SPAIN has once again broken world records for the number of organ transplants carried out.
For the year 2014, surgeons in the country carried out transplants on an average of 12 people per day - and on February 20, managed as many as 45 in one day.
A total of 22 hospitals in 11 of Spain's 17 autonomously-governed regions achieved this feat between them, thanks to finding 16 new donors, of whom two were still alive.
A total of 4,360 transplants were carried out in Spain in 2014, thanks to 1,682 donors, breaking the country's own record.
Spain has held the number one spot for organ transplants for several years, and donor numbers currently sit at an average of 36 per million inhabitants - nearly double the European average of 19 per million, according to figures released by the National Transplant Organisation (ONT).
Heart transplants have gone up by 6% and kidney transplants by 5% in the past 12 months, although the number of pancreatic, intestinal and liver transplants decreased.
Live kidney donors rose in number by 11%, reaching 423 in total.
Kidneys are among the very few organs which can be taken from living donors - as is bone marrow, where Spain reached a new record last year of 33,506 donors.
Most organs used for transplant in Spain either come from people whose cause of death is considered to be cardiac arrest, or kidneys from living donors, and the majority are aged over 60, with 40% being women and 60% men.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com