This year, pledge your organs for a good cause

Many non-government organisations and hospitals in Gujarat are geared up to promote the cause of cadaveric organ donation.

From launching awareness drives, distributing donor cards, planning a special mobile awareness drive by launching a van that would traverse the city with a dedicated motto of spreading awareness about this cause, to applying for setting up of a regional organ registry and for introducing the system of mandatory expression for organ donation while issuing driving licences - NGOs and the medical fraternity have jointly made a New Year resolution to support the cause of cadaveric organ donation. 

Due to lack of a regional or national registry in place with accurate statistics on requirement of organs waiting to be transplanted or donated for transplantation, the medical fraternity in the country has to rely on guesstimates.

Due to an huge rise in requirement for organ transplants in India today, there is a dire need to maintain these statistics. Shataayu, a city-based non-government-organisation, structured on the model of Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN) Foundation in Chennai has recently again written to the state government to set up a state-wise registry of organ failure cases waiting for transplantation and maintain data of donated organs.

Deepak Patel, a heart-transplant patient and founder of Shataayu, said, "We wrote to the chief minister for consent to set up in the beginning of the New Year a state wise registry to maintain the data of donated organs and the list of organ failure cases waiting for transplantation at various hospitals in the state. We first applied for this six months back. We have modelled our concept of registry on Mohan Foundation's which has set up a regional registry in Chennai."    

With Shataayu, Apollo hospital has also come forward to enlist potential organ donors. These institutions have applied to the Regional Transport Authority also to add the query that mandates the expression on the choice of organ donation for issuing a driver's licence. This change would ensure that the new driving licences would indicate the holder as a potential donor if the holder has positively opted to donate the organs after death while applying for licence.

Mobile organ donation campaign and donor cards
At present, of 1, 50,000 patients needing kidney transplants, only 200 get them from deceased donation in the country, which indicates that only 2% of actually procure organ via deceased donation.

According to estimated statistics, every 3 minutes a patient is added to the list of patients needing a transplant in the country.

"And to meet this rising demand, raising awareness for cadaveric organ donation is the only option," said Dr. HL Trivedi of the city's Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre and Institute of Transplant Sciences (IKDRC-ITS), which is actively involved in promoting this cause.

To promote the cause, IKDRC - ITS is setting up a mobile van to spread awareness for which it to get a grant of Rs. 50 lakh from the state. Dr. Trivedi said, "On November 28, which is celebrated as International Organ Donation Day, we asked the state government to allow us to set up a special mobile organ donation awareness programme under which a van would go around the city and surrounding villages to spread the message and encourage citizens to make a pledge to support the cause."