20 people die in India every day waiting for organs
Odisha hospital observes ‘Angadan Mahotsav’ to promote organ donation
By A.K.Sahoo
Bhubaneswar, Aug. 31: Around 20 people die every day in India while waiting for life-saving organ transplants, highlighting the country’s acute shortage of donors and the urgent need to create greater public awareness about organ donation.
“It is a critical situation and the need is to inform society about the importance of organ donation, which can save lives,” said Dr Bibhuti Bhushan Nayak, Joint Director, State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), Odisha.
He was speaking at an awareness programme organised as part of ‘Angadan Mahotsav’ (Celebration of Organ Donation) at the SOA Deemed to be University here on Monday. The programme, attended by several hundred students, was organised by SUM Ultimate Medicare (SUMUM) to promote awareness about organ and tissue donation.
Dr Nayak stressed the need for families to come forward to donate the organs of deceased relatives, saying timely donation could give patients awaiting transplants a new lease of life.
Dr Swetapadma Dash, Chief Executive Officer of SUM Ultimate Medicare, said the hospital had been observing Angadan Mahotsav since 2023 to create collective consciousness about organ donation.
“Organ donation amounts to gifting life, but we have too few donors, leaving needy patients with little option,” she said.
“Thousands of patients across the country continue to wait for life-saving organ transplants. At the same time, a single deceased donor can potentially give the gift of life to several people,” Dr Dash said.
Er. Trailokya Nath Panda, founder of Multi Organ Transplantation and Human and Educational Research (MOTHER), an NGO promoting organ donation, said people needed to be convinced that organ transplantation could be successfully performed and save lives.
The first organ donation and transplantation in Odisha took place at V.S.S. Medical College and Hospital, Burla, in 1985, he said. MOTHER, he added, was working to create awareness about organ donation as well as encourage voluntary body donation to medical colleges for medical education.
Dr Banambar Ray, Head of Department and Senior Consultant, Critical Care, SUM Ultimate Medicare, said students could become effective opinion-makers and play a major role in spreading awareness about organ donation.
Brig (Dr) Biraj Mohan Mishra, Chief of Medical Services, said the campaign would succeed only when people understood that organs donated by a deceased person could save four to five lives.
Prof Jyotiranjan Das, Dean, Student Welfare, SOA, attended the programme as special guest speaker.
In his special message, SOA founder-president Prof (Dr) Manojranjan Nayak said organ donation was “the highest expression of humanity—the gift of life beyond life.”
Photographs: Experts at ‘Angadan Mahotsav’ (Celebration of Organ Donation) organised by SOA Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, on Monday.
