You know how a lot of wedding invites come bearing a ‘No gifts please’ tag at the bottom? That seems to be changing these days. A lot of socially conscious youngsters would rather use the special occasion — be it a wedding, a birthday or an anniversary, as an opportunity to do their bit for society, while also encouraging their family and friends to chip in.
Instead of simplifying the process for organ donation, the Centre seems to be imposing more bureaucratic hurdles and adding to the trauma of donors' family members.
Ever determined to work towards the betterment of society, Lalitha Raghuram took it upon herself to spread awareness about organ donation and rid the misconceptions that our society attaches to it.
That Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh died last year in a Chennai hospital failing to secure a liver transplant on time underscores India’s acute organ transplantation crisis. Each year hundreds of Indians die while waiting for an organ transplant. The reason: there is acute imbalance between the number of organs donated and the number of people waiting for a transplant. Systemic hurdles and rigid social mindset further portends a bleak future for organ transplantation in India.
Tamil Nadu has had a tenuous link with organ donation. Once known as a “world centre” for the transplant tourism industry, the State has now reformed itself to lead the country in conducting its best cadaver transplant programme. The British Medical Journal has paid rare and rich praise to the State for achieving this turn around.
Over the last five days in Tamil Nadu, seven large-hearted people and their families have made the ultimate sacrifice – organ donation, so that many others can live on.
A global paucity of organ supply has pushed international organ trade up by a few notches in the recent times. A rising health policy issue around the globe, poor and vulnerable groups of people today are susceptible to illegal organ trafficking. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 5-10 per cent of the 1,00,000 organs transplanted each year globally have been purchased illegally from poor people desperate for cash.
Over the last five days in Tamil Nadu, seven large-hearted people and their families have made the ultimate sacrifice – organ donation, so that many others can live on. Six donors shared with their recipients a total of 11 kidneys, five livers, a lung, and eight corneas.
This could be devastating news for hundreds of people waiting for a cadaver organ for transplant: several kidneys, lungs, livers and hearts that could have saved organ failure patients weren't retrieved from brain dead patients at the Government General Hospital since October 2012.
Indian Ocean, one of the country’s leading rock bands and considered one of the pioneers of the fusion genre, connected through its music to a few hundred appreciative fans Sunday evening, but this time it was for a cause — championing the importance of organ donation in a country where thousands die because there are not enough organs available for harvesting and transplantation.
