On World Kidney Day on March 14 (Thursday), medical experts have noted that more awareness needs to be brought among people about the importance of organ donation.
As per government data, five lakh people die every year and 20 die every day in the country due to non-availability of organs. “Among those requiring a transplant, kidney patients top the list. Across the country, there are nearly 90,000 patients on the waiting list, followed by liver patients (10,625). Andhra Pradesh has more than 2,000 kidney patients, constituting 90% of the total patients waiting for an organ transplant in the State,” said K. Rambabu, State coordinator of the Andhra Pradesh government’s Jeevandan project.
These are the numbers from the year 2022 when 25,000 transplant surgeries were performed in the country. And we still have thousands of patients waiting.
Explaining what causes the gap, Dr. Rambabu said: “A kidney can either be donated by a live or a deceased person. For the first to happen, we need to form more groups at community level so that people get to know about who needs it. For the second, kidney has to be transplanted only from a person who has been declared brain dead.”
A majority of brain deaths are due to accidents, he said, adding the State reports 20,000-25,000 accidents annually. “If only more people are aware about the donation procedures, many on the waiting list will be given new life. Some of them, in rare cases, have been waiting for more than 10 years,” he said.
Allays fears
Dispelling myths about organ donation, Dr. Rambabu said the procedure does not disfigure a body nor does a hospital charge a family of the donor for it. “We have seen many cases where kin of the brain dead patient do not understand what the term means, and sometimes their beliefs come in the way. There are so many hurdles that prolong the procedure,” he said, adding while there is more awareness among people than it used to be a decade ago, more needs to be done.
Quoting medical reports, he said one in 10 people suffer from kidney problems. This year, the theme is ‘Kidney Health for All: Advancing Equitable Access to Care and Optimal Medication Practice’. One has to drink more water, walk more and lead a healthy lifestyle to stay free from kidney problems, he said.