Activists rue state apathy on organ donation

BHUBANESWAR/BERHAMPUR: On the occasion of Organ Donation Day, several activists alleged that lack of awareness and facilities to carry out organ transplantation at most state hospitals are preventing people from coming forward and pledging their organs.
Pravas Acharya, convener of the Body and Organ Donation Initiative (BODI), said barring SCB medical college hospital at Cuttack, no other government hospitals have the facility for preservation or transplantation of harvested organs.
"Even at SCB medical college, there's transplantation facility for eye (cornea) and kidney only. The state government has to do more in this field," Acharya said.
TN Panda, who has been campaigning for body and organ donation through his organisation MOTHER, said the state government has to change its attitude and enable easy and smooth process of body and organ donation in the state. "Government officials are sitting on the files of hospitals which have been applying for permission to start organ transplantation," Panda claimed.
Prabhas Mishra, associate professor (department of anatomy) at AIIMS Bhubaneswar said the state doesn't have proper infrastructure to harvest organs from a person. Due to lack of preservation facility, donation couldn't take place, he added.
He said the state government and non-government organisations should create awareness among the people to come forward and pledge to donate their body and organs. "Some people don't like to donate their body citing religious issues, but they can be convinced for the greater good," Mishra added.
Meanwhile in Berhampur, 42 eyeballs have been transplanted at the MKCG medical college hospital between January and July this year, professor BN Rao said. Over 150 people in and around Berhampur have pledged to donate their eyes, said campaigner J Suresh of Friends Helping Club.
"If the government creates proper facilities for transplantation of heart, lungs, liver and kidney, people may come forward to donate these vital organs as well," Suresh added.
Berhampur MLA R C Chyaupatnaik said he has urged the government to upgrade the superspeciality departments at the medical college and make facilities for transplantation of kidney, skin and liver.
On Saturday, several organsations across the state organised meetings and conducted rallies to make the people aware of organ donation.