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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : August 13, 2021 11:42 AM IST
World Organ Donation Day, which is celebrated every year on August 13th, emphasizes the importance of the voluntary act of organ donation and how it can save millions of lives across the globe. Organ donation can happen either from a living donor or a donor who has had brain death. Brain death is caused by catastrophic, irreversible, permanent damage to the brain either due to a road accident with head injury or a major bleed into the brain from a burst blood vessel. As we all know, the brain works as the control center for the whole body, so obviously, the whole body will eventually shut down if the brain is not properly functional. Through some medical tests, brain death can be diagnosed and there should be a legal declaration that the brain of the patient is already dead and then the process of transplantation needs to get started immediately. Living donors can donate some of their organs and tissues such as a kidney or part of the liver, part of the pancreas, part of the lungs, or part of the intestines, but most donations occur after the death of the donor.
Usually, organs that can be transplanted are - kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas, intestines, lungs, bones, bone marrow, skin, and corneas. Is it estimated that almost around 5 lakh people lose their lives awaiting organ transplants due to the unavailability of organs. It is unfortunate that even today, people are hesitant about donating their organs and, therefore, a huge gap exists between the number of transplants awaited and the organs available. Though the entire process depends on the certain medical status of the donor, as per statistics, one organ donor has the potential to save more than 8 lives in his lifetime by donating his organs that are functioning properly.
The COVID 19 pandemic has negatively impacted organ donation and transplantation in all countries. UK, France, and US reported a greater than 50 per cent reduction in transplant activity. The reasons mainly have been logistical barriers of transportation of organs, medical teams, and patients, the conversion of transplant facilities to COVID hospitals became a concern among both the doctors and the patients. The fear of acquiring COVID-19 infection immediately post-transplant with every hospital having plenty of COVID-19 cases discouraged patients from getting transplantations done.
Awareness about the safety of transplant procedures during the COVID-19 era should be created among patients by displaying transplant data during the COVID-19 pandemic in hospitals at strategic areas such as dialysis units, ICU, CCU. Print and electronic media can also be of great help to spread positive information among the public for the same.
If you have decided to donate your organs, it is indeed commendable. But before you go ahead, there are certain things that you need to be aware of.
(This article is authored by Dr Mukul Rastogi, Addn. Director, Hepatology, Fortis Hospital, Noida)
