At 73, J Sumitha was paralyzed by radiation given to treat tongue cancer. She knew she was nearing a point of no return. She filled in an online form to donate her organs on April 8. On Friday, minutes after she died at home, doctors harvested her eyes and skin. Her body was returned to the family because her organs weren't suitable for transplant.
In a first of sorts in the city, the skin and eyes of a 73-year-old woman were harvested on Friday evening. The organs were donated following an online pledge made by the donor. J. Sumitha, a resident of Vettuvankeni, had been ill for some time. Last year, she got in touch with us and pledged her organs on our website.
The city is fast catching up with certain developed countries in giving a new lease of life to people waiting for an organ transplant. The rate of organ donation in Chennai in 2013 stands at 14 per million population, which is much higher than the Tamil Nadu State average of 1.5 per million donation rate.
The national tally of kidney transplants is only 7,500 every year against a requirement of 2,10,000 surgeries, highlighting the need for preventive healthcare and awareness about organ donation, said Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee of MOHAN Foundation, an NGO.
In order to raise awareness of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and organ donation, M.V. Hospital for Diabetes and MOHAN Foundation have joined hands to launch an organ protection and donation initiative in Chennai.
A senior citizen from Chennai gave a second lease of life to a liver failure patient here on Sunday, making it Maharashtra's first case of liver-sharing with another state. Doctors from the two metros, bound in a race against time, meticulously retrieved and harvested the organ in 10 hours.
MOHAN, the acronym, stands for Multi-Organ Harvesting Aid Network. In Hyderabad, a couple, 48-year-old Lalitha Raghuram and 52-year-old Raghuram, who are actively involved in the network, live by what they preach.
Venya Raman had been ill since birth. Right after birth, she developed medical complications in the brain (inflammation and abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the cavities) and was in and out of hospitals all the time.
The number of people who volunteered to donate organs was very low, said J. Amalorpavanathan, State Co-ordinator, Cadaver Transplant Programme, at the Organ Donation Awareness and Promotion programme for nursing college students, the police and public, held here on Saturday.
Lalita, a widow with three young children, felt the world closing in on her when doctors told her she immediately needed a kidney transplant. Fortunately, she found a donor, and 10 years later is leading a healthy and happy life with her now grown-up children. Not everyone is as lucky as her because organ donation is still a taboo and an estimated 500,000 people die each year in India because of non-availability of organs.
