Recognising the selfless contribution of the 151 donor families whose compassion gave a new lease of life to several patients with organ failure last year, the State Health Department and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) on Thursday (August 3) felicitated them on the occasion of Indian Organ Donation Day.
The donor families were felicitated by Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar, wife of the late actor Puneeth Rajkumar. August 3 is observed as Indian Organ Donation Day to commemorate the first successful deceased heart transplant in India in 1994 after the promulgation of The Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994.
Speaking on the occasion, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said it is essential to spread awareness about brain death, deceased organ donation and control illegal practices related to organ transplantation. “There are several myths and misconceptions surrounding organ donation. We have involved religious heads in our campaign to bust such misconceptions,” he said.
Asserting that giving consent for organ donation by families — when their near and dear ones are declared brain dead — is not an easy task, the Minister said the society owes a debt to the donor families. “The specific objectives of this year’s organ donation campaign will include measures to reduce the demand for organ transplantation by promoting a healthy lifestyle and wellness,” he said, adding that infrastructure for donation and transportation will also be augmented.
Heads of two Non-Transplant Human Organ Retrieval Centres (NTHORCs), whose efforts resulted in organ donations from their centres last year, and organ donors and recipients from Karnataka who participated in the World Transplant Games were also honoured.
Religious heads of various faiths — Fr. Christopher Vimal Raj, Maulana N. Shabir Ahmed and the seer of Ramakrishna Sevashrama in Pavagada Japananda Swamy — spoke on the religious misconceptions surrounding organ donation.
