In our country, it is estimated that around 1.5-2lakh people are on dialysis but only about 5,000 of them have been able to receive organs. In addition to this, around 2 lakh people die due to liver diseases and 50,000 people die due to heart diseases due to lack of organs. Due to fear, myths or poor understanding, organ donation has not caught up in our country.
Dr Prasanna Venkatesh (Managing Director and Senior Consultant Paediatric Urologist
– NU Hospitals) said, “Raising awareness on Organ Donation to the general public is very beneficial. The donor’s organs will help patients who need these for life saving transplants. This is the reason we are observing “Organ Donation Awareness Day” on August 13th to create awareness for Organ donation. This is also a day when we remember all of the donors along with their families, who did this selfless deed and we take this opportunity say a big “Thank You”
Donor organs:
Dr Kiran Chandra Patro (Senior Consultant Nephrologist at NU Hospitals) said, “Organs like kidneys, liver, pancreas, heart, lungs and intestines are used for transplantation and tissues such as cornea, heart valves, bone and skin can be used post death (either brain death or cardiac death). Post natural death tissues can be donated either for transplantation or for research purposes.”
Those aged 18-years and above can donate organs:
He said, “In India, we can be an organ donor, if we are above 18 years of age irrespective of sex, race or religion. If minors want to pledge organs, it has to be done only under supervision of guardians. Post death – age, sex, race or religion will not matter for organ donation. Organ donation is not feasible only if active disease like Cancer or HIV is noted or if chronic diseases like kidney disease and heart disease are noted.”
New Hope for Organ Donation
Dr. Dilip Rangarajan (Sr. Consultant Nephrologist and Medical Director at
NU Hospitals) said:
To circumvent the shortage of organs available for transplants, we at NU Hospitals have been doing ABO incompatible renal transplants since the year 2016. ABO incompatible renal transplant is not routinely done by many transplant units in India. ABO incompatible kidney transplant requires additional immunosuppressive drugs as well as a procedure called immunoadsorption prior to the surgery to remove the antibodies against the blood group. They also need close monitoring in the post-operative period. Between September 2016 to September 2021, we have done seven ABO incompatible renal transplants. Around two patients had blood group A, two patients with blood group O and three patients had blood group B. They received kidneys from their near relatives with different blood groups. The age group of recipients was between 13 to 64 years of which six recipients were male and four donors were females. All patients had a successful transplant surgery and achieved normal kidney function. There was no requirement of dialysis for them till date and all are maintaining good transplant kidney function.”
