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‘Organ donation can prevent 10% of liver failure deaths’
An expert said about 5,00,000 people suffered heart failures annually in India, but only about 10-15 heart transplants were being performed every year.
Health experts stressed the need for more organ donations and stated that aware families and relatives can help save hundreds of lives.
Prof R Harsvardhan, joint director of the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), said, citing a study, about 5,00,000 people suffered heart failures annually in India, but only about 10-15 heart transplants were being performed every year.
“This year 18 persons were declared brain-dead at PGI (Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences) trauma centre, but none of their families opted for organ donation,” Harsvardhan, who’s also the head of the hospital administration at PGI, said.
Health experts spoke to HT on the issue on the eve of World Organ Donation Day.
“There is a wide gap between patients who need organ transplantations and organs that are available. An estimated two-lakh patients die of liver failure annually in India, about 10 or 15 per cent of whom could have been saved. About 25-30,000 liver transplantations are needed to be done in India but only about 1,500 such surgeries are performed annually,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, the secretary general of Association of International Doctors in Lucknow.
“Family members of brain-dead patients are informed about organ donation and a medical team meets them for counselling. But the final call must be taken by the family,” said Prof Samir Misra, a senior faculty at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU).
World Organ Donation Day will be observed on Sunday. An awareness programme and a pledge drive for organ and tissue donations have been organised by SOTTO.
