Voluntary donation of organs is becoming a topic laced with lesser taboo, and the data seconds it, say doctors at Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai.
“Organ donation is vital to match the lengthy list of patients waiting in need of organs. Harvesting organs from the deceased can help save many lives. We want more people to come forward and be donors. Times have changed and there are more people willing to do so nowadays,” said R. Manorajan, Head, Department of Nephrology at GRH.
Doctors say that one of the main challenges was to create dialogue on organ donation among the masses in order to debunk myths and stigma surrounding the procedure.
“Many fear that donating organs would leave the deceased body in a disfigured state which is false. The body will not bear any prominent marks when organs are harvested. People are also slowly breaking out of the religious sentiments that were against removing organs,” said Dr Manorajan.
Meanwhile S. Jagapriya, Organ Transplant Coordinator and grief counsellor of Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN) at GRH said that the myth around skin and bone donation is a task to handle. “Skin will be removed only from the thigh region, back, occasionally from the chest, but never from the face. As for donating bones, the body will be sewn back to look intact,” she said.
Further, U. Vijaya Shanmugam, Head, Department of Ophthalmology, GRH noted that enucleation of an eye takes only 20 minutes and does not disfigure the face. “In fact, transplantation of eyes is a procedure with the least amount of rejection rate as tissue matching or blood grouping is not essential for the recipient unlike with other organs,” he said. He added that only corneas can be retrieved, which will benefit at least two people.
The doctors state that youngsters are more keen in coming forward to donate, especially college students. Dr Manorajan said that during the series of awareness programs held in view of Organ Donation Awareness Week last month, college-goers had so many queries and their interest to donate was encouraging.
N Parvathasundari, an associate professor at the Department of Ophthalmology seconded the growing interest among youngsters. “During the awareness programmes in view of National Eye Donation fortnight (observed every year between August 25 and September 8), we saw about 21 people between the age of 18 and 25 pledge their eyes out of the total 51 pledges, which is comparatively higher than previous years,” she noted.
According to official data, the oldest person to have pledged their eyes during the fortnight was a 70-year-old woman at GRH.
Further, the total number of eyes collected between January and September stood at 574, which has surpassed the donations recorded until September 2021 and 2022 which stood at 414 and 230 respectively.
Ms Jagapriya noted that as many as 57 kidneys were donated since 2012 to September 2022 while 50 bone donations were made between 2021 and 2022 August which are promising and increasing numbers in phases over time.
Dean A. Rathinavel noted that though there is an increase in the relatives of brain-dead patients giving consent to donate their organs, it is a long way to sensitise people on the importance of the noble deed. “Fit organs in a brain dead patient can be a blessing to many ailing people, which their relatives must be aware of and be willing to donate,” he added.
