Donor's kin pledge to play crusaders

Kolkata: Three families, which had donated organs of their deceased kin recently, are ready to take the drive forward in the state. From encouraging people, who want to donate the organs of their deceased family members, to roping in clergies for awareness campaigns, they are ready to go the extra mile.
For instance, Sujit Chakraborty has founded Samar Chakraborty Organ Foundation.His younger brother Samar (49) had died on July 27 at ILS Hospital after a renal failure. The former footballer's liver was transplanted on a 45-year-old woman on that day only.
In an attempt to make more such organ donations a reality, Sujit will organize a mass awareness campaign on August 15. The event at the Gopal Mandir in Dum Dum will see the temple priest speaking to devotees and urging them to pledge organs. "There are several myths about donating organs, so roping in a temple priest to dispel such myths might work. I am gearing up to launch more campaigns on the issue," Chakraborty said.
On Thursday, families of Sovona Sarkar, Samar Chakraborty and Sutapa Basu were felicitated by Fortis Hospital Anandapur. The hospital also unveiled the wall of tribute as a mark of respect to deceased donors and their families. The hospital is working on installing facilities for heart transplant. "Our doctors and nurses are being trained and we are talking to the government officials so that we can start heart transplants in Kolkata soon," said Dr Tapas Raychaudhury, heart surgeon at Fortis Hospital.
The hospital already has a brain death committee in place. There are plans of roping in grief counsellors to convince families for organ donation in case of brain death.
Prasenjit, son of Kolkata's first multi-organ cadaver donor Sovona Sarkar, had provided moral support to the families of Chakraborty and Basu.