Without beating about the bush i want to share some facts that were published in The Times of India on Sep 8th 2009, about organ donation, that many of you might have read & ignored or forgotten as soon as you put the paper down.
Eye Transplants Needed in India: 250,000
Eyes donated : 25,000 of which 30% are useless.
Liver Transplants Needed: 30,000 but only 400 odd performed.
About 1.5 lac kidney failures of which only 3,500 get transplants.
only 50 cadaver donars per yr in INDIA as compared to 25-30 per million p.y in USA.
4.5 LACS require transplants annually but only 35,oo0 performed in the past 10 years.
Well does that look alarming to you, it should because death is the only constant truth in our lives & we ignore it all the time. Many of us think that donating organs is disgraceful to the dead people, it disfigures the dead body or even not fitting for our Hindu Culture. We ignore the possibility of the fact that even we could be at the other end of the rope, either us or one of our near or dear one's life could hang in the balance & we might be hoping against hope that somebody from somewhere would come like a guardian angel & save the life we are about to lose.
How would that sound to our years, frightening, not true, we always think this could not happen to us until it does, why wait till we will come across such an incident, we can only pray that such a fate does not come across us, but if it does atleast we will have the satisfaction that we have done our bit. Humans as such are only takers by nature, every other creature or plant has some use in its lifetime, but we could be useful too, after our deaths if we pledge our healthy vital organs to be used after our death, & if regularly donate blood in our life. It could save life in our family & even outside it.
Now some useful information about it:
1) the dead body will not be disfigured after donation & the hindu religion or any other religion does not prohibit it.
2) after death of a person a doctor should be called immediately so that the body can be examined thoroughly.
3) the organs can be pledged in all the private hospitals or govt recognized hospitals when a person is alive.
4) any healthy person can pledge his/her organs.
5) eyes, liver, heart, kidneys, even brain can be transplanted if death is in normal circumstances otherwise doctors can be consulted.
6) organs have to be removed within 6 hours of a person's death.
7) following addresses can be contacted to pledge your organs :
# Narayana Nethralaya, Rajajinagar, Bangalore, Cont. No. 080 23373311
# Shankar Nethralaya, Bellary Road, Bangalore, Cont. No. 080 23622649
# Sekhar Nethralaya Eye Clinic & Micro Surgical, J.P.Nagar, Bangalore, Cont. No. 09844023130
080 26593210
# Kartik Nethralaya, Banshankari, Bangalore, Cont. No. 09844043353, 080 26674399,
09886789799
# Dr. M C MODI Charitable Eye Hospital Mahalakshmipuram, Bangalore, Cont. No. 080
23492233, 080 23495622, 080 41287198
# M.S. Ramaiah Memorial Hospital, Mathikere, Bangalore, Cont. No. 080 40502000
8) If a person has not pledged his organs during his/her lifetime, his next of kin, legal caretaker can do so after consulting his/her family members.
I sincerely hope for every person who reads it will go & do it just in case any of us might need it, if not for anybody else, it is one selfless deed which will spread the joy of life in this otherwise selfish world.
Only we can make this world a better place, its in our hand how we chose to do it.....
