Organ Donation, are we doing enough to spread enough awareness?

Organ donation is the sacred and precious service done by a human being.

It got new wings in the present society as we are hearing more donations recently. This donation may be signed earlier by the donor in his life time or It may be his/her parents agree to donate when his /her brain declared dead by the doctor. The most surprising fact about organ donation is that some organs can be donated even when a person is alive. By getting registered as a donor with some trust, one gets a donor card which makes him/her eligible for the donation soon after his/her death. A single donor's body save up to 50 lives. In India, most of the people believe that performing the last rites with some organs missing is never taking their souls to heaven. This is generally observed in hinduthwa principles. In these conditions of hard belief one can't make the concept understood by the uneducated people so it is better to make the beneficiary to explain use of organ donation. The one who took the pain explains better than anyone. Organ donation is confined to the highly educated or rich persons. Central and state governments should telecast adds about organ donation in movie theatres, shopping malls, bus stops and railway stations. MLAs and MPs should spread the word of organ donation. Lecturers and teachers should explain the importance to students. Government should introduce a chapter about organ donation in schools and government should support the families of donors financially. Most of the NGO's are offering online registrations for organ donations and they are providing conversations with the needy. NOTTO (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation) works under Ministry of Health Family And Welfare function as apex centre for all India activities coordination and networking for procurement and distribution of organs and tissues and registry of organs and tissues donation and transplantation in the country. National Biomaterial Centre (National Tissue Bank) was established under The Transplantation Human Organs Amendment Act 2011 includes the component of tissue donation and registration of Tissue Banks. It became imperative under the changed circumstances to establish a national level Tissue Bank to meet the demands of tissue transplantation. Some research is still to be concluded on transplantation of face, brain and limbs. A recent Hrudaya incident happened in Hyderabad where heart of the brain dead person from Chennai was transplanted to a lady present in Hyderabad, the traffic police provided green corridor in transporting the heart by the ambulance. We can use the social networking sites to promote the concept and we can save many lines. Most of the persons come forward to donate but lack of awareness regarding where and how to donate make them remained stagnant and sometimes they may be mislead by the illegal organ traders. If we take Indian statistics, 500000 people die of non availability of organs in time every year, nationally with a population of 1.2 billion people, the statistic stands at 0.08 persons as organ donors per million populations. This is incredibly small and insignificant number compared to developed countries.

Some facts about organ donation include:

1. You can designate to donate by indicating your decision on your driving license issued by state government. This is a legal consent.
2. There is no age limit for organ donation (one should attain the age of 18 years). Only suitability matters
3. You can donate important organs like heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, ligaments, tendons, tissues and skin also.
4. The persons who are suffering from HIV or any dangerous diseases can also donate organs to HIV patients only.
5. Organ donation not only includes a help but also helps in medical research.

Negative impacts of Organ donation:

1. Some people make it cash. They trade with organs by killing innocents.
2. It requires major surgeries so there may be a chance of dying on the operation table itself.
3. Pain is a typical of post surgery, this may lasts for months and it can develop into another medical problem.

Conclusion:

"Organ donations do not cost a penny but remind the humanity still exists. It is beyond compare. The highest form of humanity".

D.Rajesh

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