Make organ donation-choice mandatory: Experts

AHMEDABAD: Dipi Chhaya, 25, suffering kidney failure is fighting for life for the past two years. She is currently on dialysis and every day her family hopes to get a cadaver organ which can relieve her from pain and infuse a new life into her.
Prashant Visnagara, 10, a kidney failure patient, needs to undergo an immediate transplant surgery. His grandmother, who died last month, donated her organ to save someone’s life.Today, Prashant’s family eagerly waits for ‘someone special’ who can donate kidney when he badly needs it. And the boy’s family feels that help would arrive in time for the boy.
In the run up to the International Organ Donation Day on November 27, one wonders why the state, which is one of the top donor states in the country when it comes to donating blood and eyes, lags behind in promoting cadaver organ donation (donating liver and kidney of brain dead patients).
Experts say that if the state authorities act in time and pass supportive and adequate laws for organ donation, Gujarat too can follow Tamil Nadu model and save lives of many organ failure patients fighting for life.
“Making it mandatory for people to express a choice of organ donation in case of brain-dead patients would increase donations and meet the shortage of organs for transplant,” said an expert.
According to a rough estimate, Gujarat gets about 500 to 700 kidney-failure cases annually of which only 300 to 350 undergo organ transplant. “From this, only 45 patients could get cadaver organ; others had to look for live donors mainly close relatives,” said Dr H L Trivedi from Institute of Kidney Diseases Research Centre (IKDRC).
Similarly, Gujarat gets about 1,500 new liver-failure cases every year and only 10 cadaver livers become available, said Dr Chirag Desai, head of liver transplant department of Apollo Hospital. “Local authorities’ support can boost the organ donation which is low in state due to lack of awareness,” Desai said.