By Our Special correspondent
New Delhi, Aug 08 (IVC) Women led the way in living organ donation, offering patients suffering from end-stage organ failure a new lease of life. Data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare here recently showed that the number of women living donors was 9,784 last year compared to 5651 men.
A lone transgender contributed an organ to save the life of another human being, taking the total number of living donors in the in 2023 to 15,346. The total number of organ transplants, taking into account both living and deceased donors was 18,378, the highest ever, the data revealed.
The statistics revealed that the number of deceased donors was much higher among men, with 844 persons donating their organs, while women accounted for 225 such donations. The (living and deceased)number of kidney transplants from January to December was 13,426 followed by liver and heart transplants at 4,491 and 221 respectively .
With an intensive awareness campaign on the issue under way in recent, the nation witnessed a significant jump in the number organ donations, which stood at 4,990 in 2013. However , the organ donation rate still continues to be less than one per million population.
Releasing the data, the Healthy Ministry sources said there was a need to promote organ donation from deceased persons to address the huge organ requirement. It was reiterated that a living donor, after the age of 18 and above, could donate either one kidney or part of liver only. A brain dead donor of any age , however, could donate heart, two lungs, liver, two kidneys, pancreas and small intestine, and cornea, bone, skin, heart valves etc. After natural cardiac death, only tissues can be donated.
To facilitate organ donation in medicolegal cases like road accidents, the Centre had issued a circular to create a facility for round-the-clock post-mortem in the hospitals having adequate infrastructure. As part of the “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsava” (75the anniversary of Indian Independence), organ donation was showcased as (“Jan Andolan”) (people’s movement).
Telengana topped the country in organ donation with 252 cadaver donors, followed by Tamil Nadu and Karntaka with 178 cases each.
The number kidney transplants, Delhi stood ahead of other s with 2576 cases while Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra reported 1,633 and 1305 cases. Tamil Nadu reported the highest number of heart transplants, with 70 cases each.
