Gift of Life to Save Lives The Hindu on October 18, 2013 reported a touching story on parents of a 17-year-old boy who was declared brain-dead following an accident. These parents immortalized memories of their son R. Balaji by consenting to donate his organs. The kidneys were donated to patients at KMCH, the eyes to Aravind Hospital, Coimbatore, the liver and heart valves were donated to patients at Global Hospital, Chennai. Consider the warmth of blessings by seven patients who received the harvested organs of 29-year-old bus conductor S. Karthikeyan, who died of head injury. (Published Aug 8, 2013, The Hindu). Sadly the story of such incidents ends here in India. Less than 200 families did so in 2012 India’s best year for deceased organ donation. For a billion-plus nation, that is a miniscule proportion. Nalini Ambady, who was a professor of psychology at Stanford University, lost her battle against Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a form of blood cancer. An Indian-American, Ambady, in her passing, has trained the spotlight on a legacy of questions, doubts and myths that modern society grapples with when it comes to organ and cell donation in order to save a life. These doubts surface each time such unfortunate losses of life occur, but the discourse that follows also helps locate answers or solutions to some really tough questions. Her struggle that led to multiple campaigns by family, friends, students and others who cared enough to take up the issue — all focused on finding a bone marrow donor so that healthy blood stem cells could be used for regenerative therapy, the only prime alternative left for treatment in her case. About a dozen potential matches had been found in the last few months, but half of them were imperfect and the rest did not materialize because the donors declined to go in for the final task of donation. Coming back to Indian context where Poor awareness, inadequate infrastructure and tedious procedures are only part of the problem. The absence of a national registry is the other big hurdle. Nineteen years after the Transplantation of Human Organs Act legalized the concept of brain death and deceased organ donation, we still lack a database that connects donors to recipients. India with its notorious reputation of being diabetes capital of the world, generates more than 3 Lakh renal failure patients with requirement of kidney transplant to stay alive. An equal number suffer from failure of the heart, liver, lungs or intestines. Almost all the 4000 kidney and 500 liver transplants carried out in our hospitals annually are the result of live donations by relatives. That means lakh of organ failure patients will die this year because they won’t get a donor. A very common human tendency — to pull out of a tough decision that essentially hinges on one’s altruistic traits, complicated and difficult to understand relates to organ donation. It could be the eyes, your kidneys, parts of a liver, even a heart. These are part of cadaver donation. M.N. Sivakumar, Head, Department of Critical Care, Kovai Medical Center and Hospital, said that though the awareness about organ donations was on the rise, there was a need to promote cadaveric organ donation and transplantation rather than live donations. “When there is a need for a transplant, a family member or relative volunteers to donate an organ. This will become unnecessary if cadaveric organ donations are widely promoted by the Government. In most Western countries, especially Spain and the U.K., live donations are not at all required because almost all cadavers are used for organ harvesting. This should also be the case here,” Legislature has come forward to facilitate organ donation. Recently a Karnataka Government Order (GO) dated October 31 permits the registration of hospitals that have 25 beds along with an operation theatre and an ICU as Non-Transplant Organ Retrieval Centers (NTHORCs). According to the GO, these Hospitals will be permitted to certify brain deaths as per the procedures stipulated in the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994 and guidelines issued by the State Appropriate Authority. Thereafter, these hospitals can conduct organ retrieval for therapeutic purposes. However, the hospitals cannot conduct the actual transplantation of human organs, according to the GO. The GO also says that the registered NTHORCs can take assistance and support from any registered transplant centers for maintaining the brain dead person in stable condition till the organ harvesting is carried out. On October 10 2013, As many as 1 lakh people have registered their names with the Kidney Federation of India (KFI) pledging to donate their organs in Thrissur. On September 29 2013, 500 Kochi students pledge to donate organs on World Heart Day. The mission is gaining momentum and many more stories start to pour in day by day. You can help too. Pledge your organs, discuss it with your family, petition your MP to bring changes in the law and spread the word online. Many lives depend on it. I am happy to inform our esteemed readers that our family except our minor son pledged to donate vital organs after death through NGO Gift a Life. giftalife.org Would you like to join in this noble cause? If you are interested, you may fill up the attached format and mail it to at the following address: VisionTree2011@hotmail VisionTree is actively working for this cause and set a target to create 100,000 donors through campaign and awareness generation. To make a pledge You may also directly log on to Gift a Life or through the link available in VisionTree2011 NB: - All references made from News Reports published in leading dailies, The Hindu & The Times of India in their respective dated editions and following references listed below:- 1. thehindu/opinion/op-ed/altruism-and-the-many-shades-of-grey/article5322493.ece 2. articles.timesofindia.indiatimes/2013-08-06/news/41132540_1_mohan-foundation-organ-donation-human-organs-act 3. thehindu/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/pledge-organs-gift-life/article4997940.ece 4. thehindu/news/national/karnataka/karnataka-makes-organ-harvesting-easy/article5331265.ece 5. thehindu/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/1-lakh-people-pledge-organs/article5224085.ece 6. thehindu/news/cities/Kochi/500-kochi-students-pledge-to-donate-organs-on-world-heart-day/article5184779.ece FORMAT Name : D.O.B : Blood Group : After my death any part of my body as: Heart : Corneas : Kidneys : Lungs : Liver : Pancreas : Small Bowel : Eyes : Tissue : May be used for the treatment of others. Signature _______________ Date ___________________ In Emergency Contact Telephone No. ___________________
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 12:39:49 +0000