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ORGAN DONATION DAY
“The tragedy is that awareness about this issue is very low in our country. Only 0.16 % per 10 lakh Indians had donated their organs in the previous year”
Siri Pharma and hyderabad hospitals.com came together and organized an awareness seminar on the occasion on Mon- day on the eve of Organ Donation Day. Eminent organ donation transplant experts emphasised on the need to spread awareness on organ donation to the public. They were of the opinion that donating organs is a means of giving second life to a patient.
Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences, Jeevandan officials including Dr Swarnalatha, In-charge of cadaver transplant and Dr Anuradha were present at the programme.
The speakers in the programme stressed on the importance of doctors, declaring organs of brain dead patients viable for donation and the need for more awareness among common crowd over the subject. “The tragedy is that awareness about this issue is very low in our country. Only 0.16 % per 10 lakh Indians had donated their organs last year. More than five lakh people are losing their lives due to shortage of organs.” said Lalitha Raghuram from Mohan Foundation.
She continued, “Unless a precise system is developed, the number of organ donations in the country will always remain low. In western countries, transplantation of organs from brain dead patients is considered to be an accepted part of medical treatment. Declaration of brain dead patients in all hospitals, private or government should be made mandatory. The government should improve its participation in this field and involve itself more extensively. Organ donation in the country is still at a nascent stage.”
Dr AGK Gokhale, Heart and Lung Organ Transplant Expert opined, “At present, there are about 2, 50,000 kidney, 50,000 heart and 50,000 liver transplant cases pending in the country. With such high demand, the supply is less than 0.1%. This reflects the graveness of the situation. About 250 people meet with road accidents daily and are found brain dead. If such cases are declared, it is possible to save over 40% of the patients who are in desperate need of organ transplants. If organ do- nation awareness is increased, it would go a huge way in helping the cause and automatically increase the inflow of organs. The major issue now is lack of donors and awareness.”
“Under the Jeevandan programme, 47 kidney and 22 liver transplantation’s have occurred over the past six months. Thankfully, the case of heart transplantation is very less. 1000 people have registered themselves under kidney transplantation’s and 300 under liver. We counsel the families on the importance of organ donation after the patient has been declared brain dead. We put before the state government the recommendation of a Government Order for declaration of brain deaths in the government run hospitals,” commented Dr Swarna Latha, Jeevandan programme in-charge.
The other doctors present were Dr Somasheela Murthy, Eye Cornea transplant expert, LVPEI, Dr Prasantha S Rao, Liver trans- plant surgeon at Apollo Hospitals and Dr Kamal Kiran, Nephrology expert at Kamineni.