Guwahati Still Lacks Awareness on Organ Donation

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: At a time when the whole of India is going far ahead in promoting the cause of organ donation, Guwahati is yet to catch up with this noble concept. While one organ donor can save up to 9 lives by donating their functioning organs, the practice of cadaver organ donation is yet to make its debut here. According to a source, presently, only eye donation is prevalent in the city and kidney transplants also take place intermittently.

Organ donation is the process of giving an organ or a part of an organ for the purpose of transplantation into another person. Organ transplantation is a surgical procedure to replace a diseased organ with a healthy donor organ. It is often the only treatment for organ failure. There are two situations under which organ donation can take place: live donation (when the person making the donation is alive) and deceased organ donation (when a dead person’s organs are donated). Further, the deceased individual in this scenario can only be a victim of brain death.

Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO), located within the campus of Gauhati Medical College & Hospital (GMCH) in Guwahati, is the apex organization that carries out organ and tissue transplant in the region. There are other non-governmental and private organizations too that have been working to spread awareness around the cause; one such prominent organization is the Zublee Foundation.

Founder of Zublee Foundation, Zublee Baruah said, “We have over 700 registered organ donors who have pledged to donate their organs after death. However, due to lack of medical infrastructure and awareness, people who are willing to donate their organs after death too are unable to do so.” “If a person pledges to be an organ donor, they’re not legally obliged to donate all their organs. If, after their death, the family members of the deceased do not give consent, no organization or medical institution can retrieve the organs,” she informed. She further emphasized on the need for an organ bank and facility of organ transplant in the city. Thousands declared brain dead every year, yet city faces dearth of organs every year. If each one of them donated their organs, it could bring an end to the sufferings of the innumerable patients suffering from organ failure and awaiting a transplant.