Twitter
Advertisement

Gifting Life

Concept of organ donation is fast finding acceptance and people are volunteering to give a gift of life to others. Amit Bhatt gets into the skin to give a complete picture of where the state stands

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

There cannot be anything more priceless than gifting a new lease of life to the one in need. Recently, a 30-year-old Pawan Kumar Panchal from Sambhariya village in Bassi Tahsil of Jaipur gifted happiness to four families through cadaver transplant as his family donated his vital organs including liver, pair of kidneys and heart after doctor declared him as ‘brain dead’. 

Pawan, a Tata Magic driver by profession, met with an accident on March 29 in his village when a vehicle rammed into the bike he was driving. Seriously injured Pawan was admitted to the SMS Hospital by his family members where he was declared as ‘brain dead’ on April 1. After counseling from doctors and representatives of MFJCF Navjeevan, an organisation working to encourage organ donation, Pawan’s family members agreed to donate his organs. 

While his kidneys and liver were transplanted in three different patients in the SMS Hospital, the doctors sent his heart to a private hospital in Delhi to transplant it in a patient suffering from heart failure. 

“One person dies of kidney failure every 5 minutes. This amounts to roughly 290 deaths every day due to kidney failure. These numbers suggest that with adequate systems in place, people succumbing to accident-prone injuries could give a number of patients new lease of life,” Prajesh Taneja of MFJCF Navjeevan, told DNA.

To promote deceased organ donation and transplantation in the state to overcome organ shortage problem, the state Health and Family Welfare Department has already evolved a cadaver transplant programme. 

Explaining the process of transplant, he said,“Organ donation is the process of retrieving or procuring an organ from a live or deceased person known as a donor ,” Dr Ankur A Gupta, specialist at Medanta NIMS Liver Transplant Center said. “The process of recovering organs is called harvesting. This organ is transplanted into the recipient who is in need of that organ. Tissues such as cornea, heart valves, skin, and bone can be donated in case of natural death but vital organs such as heart, liver, kidneys, intestines, lungs, and pancreas can be donated only in the case of ‘brain death’.” These can be transplanted to those recipients whose organs are failing, giving them return to a normal lifestyle, he added.

Organ Donation in Rajasthan

As per the Rajasthan Deceased Donor Transplant Data of Rajasthan Network for Organ Sharing (RNOS), 25 donors from Rajasthan have donated their vital organs, 81 solid organs and 14 tissues have been transplanted to 97 recipients. Till date 250 patient in 10 authorized hospitals are waiting for kidney transplant.

How to register?

Deceased Donor Organ and Transplant Program has online secure registry system for organ recipients waiting for organ transplantation from various hospitals in the state. Hospitals authorized by the state government to perform deceased donor transplants can join the registry after providing patient details via an online form. A patient need a transplant has to register himself through any of 10 authorized hospitals only.

Who can be a donor?

Anybody can be an organ donor irrespective of their age, caste, religion, community etc. There is no defined age for donating organs. The decision to donate organs is based on strict medical criteria, not age. Anyone younger than age 18 needs to have the agreement of a parent or guardian to be a donor.

Lakhs can live after death

According to studies, the total number of brain deaths due to accidents in India is nearly 1.5 lakhs annually. Other causes of brain death would potentially add many more numbers. There is a need of 2 lakh kidneys, 50,000 hearts and 50,000 livers for transplantation every year. Even if 5-10% of all brain deaths are harvested properly for organ donation, there would be no requirement for a living person to donate organs. 

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement