Organ donors urge citizens to save lives

Varsha Kavishkar, 58, shares her liver donation journey at an awareness event, highlighting the need for more organ donors to save lives.

MUMBAI: “While casually checking my messages on my phone a few years ago, I saw a forwarded message that said, ‘Need O-positive liver for transplant’. I assumed someone needed blood and since I was O +ve, I responded to the call,” said Varsha Kavishkar, 58, a retired school principal from Mumbai. “But the person at the other end said they needed an organ.”

Organ donors urge citizens to save lives

She said it took a day for it to sink in and to understand the process. “The next day I agreed,” she said. The organ coordinator from a Delhi hospital explained the process of liver donation and that the liver is regenerative. “I told my family of my decision. Initially, they were sceptical but eventually they agreed,” she said.

Kavishkar was speaking at an organ donation awareness programme organised by the Rotary Club of Mumbai Mahim, in association with the Sir JJ group of hospitals and Live Beyond Life Foundation, a transplant advocacy group, on Friday.

Kavishkar travelled to Delhi as the recipient was in that city. “I was admitted to hospital for five days and got 67 stitches on the stomach.” She said she turned down the option of plastic surgery as “the scar is a symbol of giving life to someone and I will flaunt it”.

At the event on Friday, Dr Pallavi Saple, dean, Sir JJ Hospital, said, “JJ Hospital has the highest number of transplant surgeries. Currently, there are 6,500 patients on the wait list for kidney, 500 for liver, 119 for heart, 34 for pancreas, and two for the small intestine. These numbers can come down to zero if a greater number of people take the initiative and pledge their organs.” Saple said the government-run JJ Hospital is in process of setting up a liver transplant wing, which should be operational soon.

The awareness programme, held at Shivaji Park, hosted a comprehensive discussion of donors, recipients, and medical experts that highlighted the different types of organ donation. In another case, Goregaon resident Anamta Ahmed, 13, said she almost lost her right hand after she accidently touched an open electric cable at the age of nine. “The doctors tried to save my hand but couldn’t. We reached out to several hospitals for a transplant but they declined because I was under 18.”

Then Dr Nilesh Sathbhai of Gleneagles Hospital, Parel, took up the transplant surgery. “We registered for transplant at the hospital and was lucky to receive a cadaver donation from a nine-year-old from Ahmedabad,” said Ahmed.

Dr Saple said, “No donation goes waste. If the body does not have any viable organs, it can be used for scientific purposes by medical students.”