Only 10-20 % of the patients with ESRD remain on long-term renal replacement therapies such as maintenance dialysis.
The median survival of those on haemodialysis is just 40 months, according to some recent studies.
Even considering the huge expenses on medication post-transplantation, all evidence state that in the long term, kidney transplantation is less expensive than dialysis, yields much better quality of life and higher life expectancy.
It is thus important that the State develops a healthy deceased donor organ donation programme to give a better chance at survival for the thousands of people newly joining the ESRD bandwagon every year. Official estimates put the number of new ESRD cases annually in Kerala at 5,600, putting the requirement of necessary kidney transplants a year at 1,800.
In 2016, Kerala’s Mrithasanjeevani was the nation’s topper at 2.3 deceased donors per million population. But after 2016, following allegations of profiteering by private hospitals through organ donation, deceased donation just slumped and has never sufficiently been revived.
From 113 cadaver kidney transplantations in 2016, the figure slumped to 34 in 2017 and 14 in 2018
At present, the Mrithasanjeevani waiting list for kidneys has 1,714 patients. In 2018 alone, 35 died while waiting for a kidney.
