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Kerala tops in second lease of life
Kerala Tops in Second Lease of Life. Kerala seems to be moving in the right direction when it comes to organ donation. Mrithasanjeevani, an initiative of the Kerala government to facilitate organ donation has recorded a remarkable increase in the number of donations.
Awareness leads to increased voluntary donation of organs
The number of people who came forward to donate an organ was just nine in 2012 and it dramatically reached 36 in 2013
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Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala seems to be moving in the right direction when it comes to organ donation. Mrithasanjeevani, an initiative of the Kerala government to facilitate organ donation has recorded a remarkable increase in the number of donations. The number of people who came forward to donate an organ was just nine in 2012 and it dramatically reached 36 in 2013 and the numbers have swelled to 57 in 2014 marking a 58.3% increase in the number of donors.
Kerala Network for organ sharing (KNOS) has proudly put up on their web site as well as at many hospitals, the statistics, which say that only 22 organs were transplanted in 2012, 88 in 2013 and the numbers have steadily increased to 154 in 2014. In the last year a remarkable increase of 75% has been recorded in the number of organs transplanted.
Though there is an increase in the number of organs being donated by the relatives of dead patients what still is surprising is the number of people still waiting for an organ. The number of patients waiting for a kidney in Kerala totals 787. Interesting, a large number of patients that constitute the waiting list belongs to the ‘O’ blood group, followed by A and then B.
Viji Titus, a retired chief engineer who worked for the Kerala State Water Authority, got a kidney transplanted a month ago. He says, “The present average waiting period for a kidney is two years. Even I had to wait for two years for getting a cadaver kidney. If more donations come in, the waiting period can be reduced to a large extent.” He also added, “During the waiting period, patients have to undergo dialysis for blood purification, almost thrice a week.” Dialysis should be carried out on an average atleast two times a week, in some cases even three. It is an expensive affair and many patients find it difficult to afford dialysis during the waiting period.
The Department of health has taken up this arduous task of promoting deceased organ donation and transplantation in Kerala. They are trying to evolve the programme in Kerala based on similar lines as Tamil Nadu, which boasts of very large number of organ donations in India. Like they’ve recently invented in the US, very soon we will also have implantable bio artificial kidneys, an invention that can save many patients in India. Let’s hope that 2015 will be an even better year for Kerala, when it comes to organ donation.
