Female Organ Donors in Australia Outnumber Males Almost 1:2

The mother of the three-year-old boy who died on Wednesday after he was hit by a Victoria-bound train said she is donating the organs of her child.

Michelle said that despite the family saddened deeply by the death of Ethan, whom she described as cheeky, mischievous and always affectionate, she wanted to save lives of other critically ill children with the decision.

"It's really brave decision (to donate Ethan's organs) and I would like to think it would help them with the grieving process," Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Director of Transplantation Services Richard Allen told ninemsn.

"It's gut-wrenching for everyone involved with the procedure but the mood changes afterwards (because) you know the donated organs will go to someone who will obviously benefit," Mr Allen added.

According to the Australia and New Zealand Organ Donation Registry (ODR) there are 1,566 Australians waiting for an organ transplant as of Oct. 4.

As of end of August, there are 1.52 million legally valid consent registrations in the Australian ODR, but majority of them are adults. Mr Allen confirmed that the number of children donors remains very low, even if the number of children who die from injuries is on the rise in Australia.

Ethan had just been added to the number, which is dominated by female donors. Of the 1.52 million valid consent registrations, 61 per cent or 929,708 are females and 39 per cent or 592,292 donors are males.

For the same period, there are another 4.256 million people with intent to register. This time, the ratio between women and men donors is almost 1:1 with 2.11 million females who have signed intentions to register with the ODR and 2.14 million males.

Ethan succumbed to head, chest and abdomen injuries he sustained from the train accident. His four-year-old female playmate, who was also hit by the same train, survived the accident and was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday.