At the end of the day, over 100 people had pledged their organs by signing the register placed at the helpdesk of PSG Hospitals in Brookefields Mall here on Saturday.
And, a majority of them were between the age of 15 years and 24 years.
The helpdesk was part of the awareness programme on organ donation, jointly organised by PSG Hospitals, MOHAN (Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network) and The Hindu .
Volunteers were on hand to distribute hand outs, explain the technicalities and legalities involved in organ donation and also get a database of people willing to pledge their organs.
The programme in the evening had J.S. Bhuvaneswaran, medical director of PSG Hospitals, talking about the growing importance of organ donation and the need for creating more awareness among people.
“The hospital is conducting various awareness programmes in schools and colleges. Today we are doing it in a mall. We are not only looking at making the potential donor aware, but also his family and friends, because after the death of the person it is the family that has to decide to honour the wish of the deceased,” he said.
There was a need to sensitise the whole family, especially in cases of persons declared brain dead in accidents, and where the deceased had not pledged the organs. A healthy individual would be capable of donating his eyes, liver, and kidneys. At least, four persons would benefit from the organs harvested from a single brain dead person.
G. Venu, nephrologist, PSG Hospitals, gave information on who were eligible to donate and who could use the donated organs. The role of MOHAN Foundation in co-ordinating with the State Government’s organ transplantation registry was also explained.
The helpdesk will be open the whole of Sunday to enable those interested in pledging their organs to register their names. The Hindu is the media partner. Brookefields is the venue partner, and Radio City, the radio partner for the event.
