In an extraordinary display of collective support towards a voluntary cause, about 4,600 citizens pledged to donate their organs on Saturday as part of a drive organised by government initiative ‘Jeevandan’ and Yashoda Hospitals.
The large turnout at the event, held in Madhapur, mostly consisted of students and young working professionals.
Actor Nagarjuna, chief guest at the event, took an oath to donate his organs.
“My father wanted to donate his organs but the doctors told him it would not be of help due to his old age and his health condition. He then asked the doctors to at least make use of the pace maker that was installed inside his body. He also told the family members to ensure that the pacemaker is reinstalled in a worthy and needy person,” the actor said.
The lack awareness was to blame for the large number of people not donating organs in the country, Nagarjuna said.
“I will try and spread the message on organ donation. I will make statements on various platforms to garner support for this cause,” he added.
Presently, the donation rate in the country stands at an abysmal 0.26 per cent per million population, whereas it is 26 per cent in US and 35 per cent in Spain.
“We want to register about 11 lakh people by the end of this year. We urgently need donors as there are lakhs of people waiting for transplantations. The society needs to be educated since many are dying due to lack of donors,” Yashoda Hospitals managing director G. Surender Rao said.
Telangana Principal Secretary (Medical and Health), Suresh Chandra, said they would be integrating 108 services with Jeevandan so that it becomes easy to identify donors and convince the family at the earliest.
Urologist P.V.L.N. Murthy, a kidney sub-committee member at Jeevandan, said all details of the 671 patients needing organ donation had been put up on the website. “The allotment of organs is based on the merit of each patient based on their requirement. There is no scope for any manipulation,” Dr. Murthy said.
Since its inception in January 2013, Jeevandan has received 69 organs from various donors.
