National Organ Donation Day In Bhubaneswar: 5 Lakh People Die Waiting For Transplant In India Annually, Says Expert

Bhubaneswar: An estimated five lakh people die in India while waiting for organ transplantation every year, said eminent gastroenterologist Dr Manoj Kumar Sahu on Saturday.

Speaking at a programme organised to mark the National Organ Donation Day at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here, Dr Sahu said 17 people in India die every day because they fail to get a donor. 

Quoting the World Health Organisation (WHO) report, he said India’s organ donation rate was a meagre 0.01 per cent. Against a requirement of 1.5 lakh kidney transplantations, only 5,000 are performed in the country annually. Around two lakh people die of liver diseases because they never get a donor.

Against a huge requirement, only around 39,000 organ transplantation were conducted in India during 2020, he added.

Stating that a person of any age could donate an organ, Dr Sahu, who heads the department of Gastroenterology in the hospital, said a newborn baby who died within 100 minutes of birth can donate both kidneys while the cornea of a 107-year-old woman can be harvested for use. “There is no age bar for organ donation,” he added.

Dr Sahu said the scope of organ donation in the country is immense and people need to be sensitised about this issue. “During last month, organs have been donated by family members of 10 brain dead persons in IMS and SUM Hospital alone,” he informed.

Prof (Dr) Gangadhar Sahu, Dean of IMS and SUM Hospital; Prof (Dr) Pusparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent; Dr Ajay Kumar Jena, Additional Dean; Dr Satyaprakash Raychoudhury, Head of GI Surgery; Neuro Intensivist Dr Iswar Chandra Behera and Nursing Superintendent Minati Mishra also spoke at the programme.