The ultimate gift…

Mona

Anju Dhiman was a giver all her life. In her childhood she wouldn’t wink twice giving away her toys to any kid who wanted them. At 19, when she left this world, she again left a gift, this time the gift of life.

When an accident left Anju brain dead, her family willed to carry forward her giving nature even in her death. Five lives were saved as this young girl’s heart valves, kidney, liver, eyes and pancreas were transplanted.

While India tops in the number of accidental deaths, it’s Spain that tops with 36 organ donors (per million population). Going by the statistics, The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh is not doing bad either standing at 26 cadaver organ donations in 2015, highest by any single institution in the country. All has been possible due to relentless work by this ace health institution. The motivated doctors and transplant coordinators work 24x7 saving, and, giving lives.

If the premier institution is doing their job well, there are aware, enthusiastic people ready to pledge their organs. For Suneel Saigal, a pre-mature baby became the catalyst to become a blood donor. When he got to know about organ donation, he happily registered. “When I heard about the importance of pledging one’s organs.” His wife Sujata followed suit. “Death ke baad body aur iske organs ne mitti mein hi mil jana hai, if one can save life, why not,” he questions.

Bharat Bhushan, a retired scientist, had pledged his eyes way back in 1991, and when he got know about that one could pledge organs too, he did. Most members of his family have done the same, “It is something one cannot force anyone to do. But the new generation is aware, so I am certain that the drive will be successful.”

And it’s not like you got to be of certain age to be able to make a difference. Akshit Chhabra, a 14-year-old got to know about the organ donation drive in the school assembly and joined the transplant coordinators at PGI to know more about it. He joined the team for a blood donation camp and out of 150 donors, he along with the PGI team, was successful in ensuring that 102 people pledge for the organ donation in a single day. “You don’t need your organs after you die; why not pass on so that somebody could live?”

Driving force

Sign to save

"Organ donation in India is still not a common thing for there has been a lack of awareness and attitude. We should encourage everyone to talk with their family about organ donation and consider registering. From one brain-dead person, as many as 50 lives can be saved or transformed.  In the last three years, people have come up but it takes a huge amount of initiative and coordination between a team of doctors, police and the family to make donation happen. Time we talked about it and pledge for it. It only takes two minutes to sign up and you could potentially be saving lives." Prof AK Gupta, medical superintendent

The final call  

"Brain death is death. A relatively new concept for so far death has been thought to be by cardiac arrest. A person is declared brain dead when there is no brain stem reflex, meaning no activity to control respiration and other functions. No, there is no case of any brain dead person reviving ever, anywhere in the world." Dr Rajesh Chhabra, Dept of Neurosurgery

Family has a say

"One can pledge one’s organs in one’s lifetime. However, the right to donate lies with next of the kin. It is important to convince your family for they are the ones who will have the right over your body once you are no more." Dr Vipin Koushal, Dept of Hospital Administration

A long way to go

"PGIMER Chandigarh tops the organ donation in country by any single institution with 26 cadaver organ donations in 2015, yet the figure is nowhere close to the potential number. When we started DM in hepatology and became ready for transplants, there were no donors. So we started the drive to create awareness. One can also donate part of liver to the next of kin, it is major operation for the donor with a healing time of about 3-6 months." Dr RK Dhiman, Dept of Hepatology

An emotional challenge

"Our job is a challenging one. When the family is still in shock, we break the news of being brain dead. It takes few sessions to motivate them for organ donation and if all goes well – and the family is convinced, recipients matched, organs retrieved and transplanted onto the recipients and lives are saved." Navdeep Bansal, transplant coordinator

It’s absolutely safe

"Kidney failure is getting too common. Imagine patients being attached to a machine for a dialysis, neither here nor there. A donor can bring their life to normal. We have done about 3,000 such transplants so far, and no case of mortality is reported in either the donor or the recipient." Dr Ashish Sharma, Department of Transplant Surgery