Sunday, January 17, 2016

Need for awareness on organ donation

Last year, I got to support an unknown for his wife's liver operation.  He had to raise a 50L fund. Though he reached the essential 35L mark for the liver transplantation, by then his wife's liver infection spread and it was too late to take any action. His wife eventually died leaving behind a nine year old son.
I happened to speak to this gentleman recently who is yet to recover from this loss.  What he said makes me think. He said if he had received the liver in advance, his wife could have been saved. He said everyday 200 people die want of donar organs. I dont know about the stats, but I am thinking about what would be happening to the less privileged.
I started thinking about the conditions of the Govt Hospitals across companies.  He said, the actual cost is for the equipments and if the government can make them available in plenty, the transplantation cost would come to mere 2 Lakhs.
I felt very disturbed because health care is one of the silent problem areas of our society - not just our country, everywhere in the world. We have just allowed healthcare to be expensive.  We have created an industry and host of scams around this.
I told him to get associated with a NGO who would create awareness about organ donation or he himself would start a NGO.
I remember TOI organizes organ donation campaigns yearly once. I wish there is more awareness to this.