No greater gift One donor can save eight lives

Organ donation is a life giving process and one person can save at least 8 lives. The organs that can be used from a single donor are heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, intestine, limbs,skin, cornea and bones. Govt. of India passed legislation to legalize organ donation in 1994. Although donation in  last few years are steadily increasing it is still very low compared to the west. Donation in India is 0.86 per million compared to Spain with the highest rate of organ donation at 46.9 per million. An estimated 2,20,000 patients die of chronic kidney disease and  2,50,000 die of chronic liver disease every year. Atleast about 20% of them can be saved with timely transplant.  Thus there is a wide gap between demand and supply says “Dr.Ravichand Siddachari, MS, DNB, MRCS, FRCSEd, Chief, HPB and Liver Transplant, KIMS Hospitals

Some countries such as Spain and England have adopted “ OPT OUT SYSTEM”. In this system everyone is considered to agree to donate organs when they die unless they have recorded a decision not donate beforehand. This system has enhanced the donations in these countries.

 Most organs come from road traffic accidents. In the year 2018, there were atleast 1,50,000 fatalities due to road traffic accidents and majority were young and presumably their organs were suitable for donation.  Even if 10% of them had donated organs then that would have been sufficient enough. However, there are many challenges in our country and over a period of time donation might improve. Some of these challenges are :

Lack of awareness,

Religious misbeliefs,

Superstitions

Lack of faith in health care system

Lack of organizational support:

Brain death identification and declaration needs trained doctors and donation co-ordinators. Many hospitals may have potential donors but there may be lack of trained doctors or they may not be interested. ICU care is essential for brain dead patients.  Sometimes there may not be adequate funds to maintain such a patient.

Health Systems and Infrastructure

Over 80% of health care in India is provided by private sector. Transplants are done mainly in large private hospitals. Most patients in India cannot afford health care in private sectors. As the cost of transplant is also very high only few patients can afford it. Moreover most road traffic accident victims are usually taken to public hospitals where there will be neither trained personnel are present nor the facility to maintain such a patient is available.

Funds and resources

Public spending on healthcare in India is about 1.5% of gross national income and most which is spent on infectious diseases, family planning, nutrition and maintenance of basic health infrastructure. Very few transplants are done in public hospitals. Patients have to depend on private hospitals and pay from their own pockets. Some states cover transplantation services to patients below an income threshold. Not all insurance policies cover transplant and moreover patient may not be insured enough to cover that amount. Some crowd funding is possible for children but not for adults.

Organ donation although is slowly increasing over the time but still far from supplying enough number to the needy patients. There is no bigger gift than donation of organs. Let’s pledge for organ donation.