Mumbai needs more skin donors, say doctors treating burn patients

Mumbai: Doctors treating burn patients are raising the alarm regarding the city's stagnant skin donation numbers over the past few years.The city has 150 patients on the wait-list every month, but only about 30 donations are made. Of these, 20 reach the National Burns Centre in Airoli, while 10 are sent to skin banks at KEM Hospital and Sion Hospital.The numbers remained stagnant over the past few years. Of the total 20 families this year so far who donated the organs of a deceased relative, only four chose to donate skin.Speaking to mediapersons on Thursday, Dr Sunil Keswani, head of the National Burns Centre in Airoli, said, "People have a lot of misconceptions about skin donation. The most common one is that it would damage the body, but that is not the case. We take only a very thin layer from the back, thighs and legs, and return the body after carefully covering those areas."Across the country, there are 70 lakh burn injury cases annually, 1.4 lakh of which result in death. Dr Keswani added 50% of these patients could have been saved if there were enough skin donations.The most common burn victims, he noted, are women and children. Four out of five burn cases involve women and children, and 80% of admitted cases are the result of kitchen accidents."We also see a lot of cases of factory workers facing chemical burns," said Dr Keswani.Many of the burn injury cases in the city are transferred further to Airoli Burns Centre, as many of the public hospitals lack required infection control measures.Of the total 20 families this year so far who donated the organs of a deceased relative, only four chose to donate skin, according to the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC) data. Other deceased donations come through NGOs, data for which was unavailable.