PremBabu Sharma
Despite the encouragement by Government of India to promote cadaver organ donation by simplifying it, doctors say that they are not receiving enough donors. For the first time actors, cricketers, doctors and other dignitaries got together at an event organized by Delhi Urological Society to create awareness on organ donation.
Speaking at USICON 2014, Dr Rajeev Sood, Organising Secretary & Head, Urology, RML Hospital, New Delhi said,” We have more than the required number of suitable donors but a lack of awareness and resources continues to maintain the void. The present scenario of Organ Donation & Transplantation in India is dismal and lacs of patients, in need of organs for survival, are left waiting and ultimately succumb to the disease.”
As a strategy to reduce the gap, cricketers Kapil Dev & Bishan Singh Bedi today pledged to donate their organ at an event organized at Airport Authority of India officers club. Their pledge coincided with the launch of a slogan “Har jan ko amar banana hai” – a noble initiative by the Urological Society Of India for promoting organ donation. The slogan “Har jan ko amar banana hai” inherently carries with it the message of eternal life for all, cutting across all regional and religious barriers that we all face while trying to persuade the bereaved family of the deceased.
Informed Dr Jagdish Prasad, DGHS, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, “Under the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), we have hired transplant coordinators in all the Government Hospitals of Delhi who will counsel the kin of the deceased for organ donation. Four regional centres would be set up across India for tissue transplant” Informs Dr J.G.Lalmalani, “The kidney being the most common solid organ to be transplanted and the urologist community is best suited for this purpose. While 2.1 lakh Indians require kidney transplantation annually, but only 3000 – 4000 kidney transplants are done. There are currently over 120 transplant centres in India performing approximately 3,500 to 4,000 kidney transplants annually. Organ donation from the brain dead – also referred to a cadaveric donation is still very low in India. While Spain has 35 organ donors per million people, Britain has 27 donors, US 26 and Australia 11, India’s count stands at a mere 0.16 per million people.”Overall 31 organs can be transplanted after the death of a person who has pledged for organ donation. “ informs Dr Rajeev Sood.
