While organ donation is picking up in the State, awareness about the concept of skin donation is yet to catch up. Since its inception in March 2016, the State’s first and only skin bank set up at the government-run Victoria Hospital has had only 142 donations.
Following this, the bank, set up in association with Rotary Ashirvad, has barely been able to meet 54% of the demand by patients for skin. While the bank has received requests from 235 patients for skin so far, it has been able to cater to only 127.
Skin donations that more than doubled from 18 in 2016, the first year of inception, to 40 in 2017 are on a declining trend since then. While there were 33 donations in 2018, the next year saw 17 donations.
