Hi! machan here. Thought
I'd give an update. I'm writing this from the ICCU of Lakeshore hospital.
I was taken to the operation theatre on
25th, after completing my 190th dialysis. I had to wait 18 months for this. I
got a healthy young man (42 y.o) as a donor, a native of Nenmara (palakkad). We
had arranged about fifty documents for another donor before, but his
family was not willing for the procedure towards the end. I was afraid that I
wouldn't be able to make those many legal docs again, it was enough of a
pain the first time. But then again, the troubles they (the government) make us
go through are justified; a lot of illegal organ trafficking takes place here.
During this period my dialysis continued at KIMS, thrice a week. I received
extraordinary treatment and mental support from the amazing medical teams at
these hospitals. My friends and family (can't possibly mention all your names)
gave me their full hearted support. I was happy. And then we found another
donor. So we set out to arrange all the necessary documents
all over again, but this time we were more familiar with the process. Finally,
we had to get an approval for the transplant from an ethics committee.
The process was fairly straightforward and we got our approval.
After the transplant operation, I feel like
I'm improving by the hour. But ultimately it is a foreign body inside me, so I
have to take immuno suppressants to avoid rejection. The creatine level in
my blood has reduced to 1.5 (prior to the operation it was 7.5). Now that I
have close to no immunity, I have to lead an extremely careful life as even the
tiniest infections and diseases can have serious consequences. The chances of
rejection of the new kidney have been minimized thanks to modern medication.
Now I hope to return to my room in 5 days. After discharge i have to be
available locally for another 3-4 months, for routine checkup.
Right now I have my wife, my younger son, my previous manager and his wife staying
here with me. My elder son (who had to go back to college for his exams) will be back
on the third. I owe them, my relatives, friends, my doctors and everyone who
helped me pass through these difficult times, immensely. My life
now rests in God's hands.
Lastly, I'd like to urge all of
you to opt in to donate your organs after death, it gives those people in need
of them a new life.
Dear Sir,
I respect the courage you have shown & I pray to
almighty for your speedy recovery.
Now that you have taken time to describe how you have gone
through, I shall write my thoughts on brain death cases & organ donation.
Each year from 2004 it was hard for me to hear about the deaths of
friends who studied with me. We are not immortals after all.
Upon seeing the malayalam movie traffic few months back, I did
first time come to know about the case of brain death which is the complete
cessation of brain function as evidenced by absence of brain-wave activity on
an electroencephalogram: sometimes used as a legal definition of death. Its in
reality death itself even though the heart may continue beating with the aid of
a mechanical ventilator.
Sometime back, I heard Mrs Uma Preman talking in Hit 96.7FM about
brain death cases & she gave some statistics. Most of you might be knowing
that she runs a charitable institution named Santhi medical information center
in Guruvayoor. Her husband died mostly because of non awareness of the disease,
Iam not sure what it was, maybe kidney failure. She has now devoted her life to
propagate right information’s on diseases through her charitable works... check
out her website:
Mostly she is focused on kidney transplant cases, helping people
through subsidized dialysis... Now there was a kidney transplant in my family a
year back. The laws involved in kidney transplants were too stringent. The
Government has made this stringent to maximum avoid the kidney racket. The 31
year old relative had to wait almost 2 years to have the committee approve the
transplant. Till then he had to do dialysis regularly. We were able to
financially tackle the dialysis costs & the surgery charges but there are
several thousands of people who are not able to perform dialysis regularly
because of financial constraints. Now the approval of committee is too
difficult. We faced problems in most of the forms & we know the red
tape involved in all Govt depts. The interviews by the committee is mostly
merciless. First they try to scare the donor by telling that the donor may die
eventually, stuff like that to finally make sure that the donor is fully,
willingly giving away his kidney. They find out any flaw, the committee just
rejects the donor. As she says the need for organs is so high that if
Govt legalizes mercy killing atleast half of the patients may apply for it…
because they have spend all their money for dialysis… now the families cant
afford anymore… the relatives starts thinking it would be better if the patient
dies….
Cases of organ failure are bound to increase manifold in India in
the next 5 to 10 years, given the burgeoning number of people with diabetes,
hypertension, and borderline or end-stage renal diseases. Unless governments
support and promote multi-organ harvesting from deceased donors (cadavers),
hapless millions cannot even hope to live. Taking up the success of MOHAN
foundation, Mrs Uma Preman had submitted a project report to previous LDF &
now to UDF government but there was no proper response from either of them
other than the word ‘NOKAM’. Now she along with Mr Salil (the patient who
received her kidney) has approached the High court for relaxation of the
current stringent law and what happened after that Iam not updated on that.
Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN) Foundation, an NGO
works in coordination with the Tamil Nadu Cadaver Transplant Programme,
facilitated by the Tamil Nadu government. It has been hailed as one of the best
models for organ donation in developing countries by the World Health Organisation.
The current demand in the country for kidney transplants is
150,000; liver, 200,000 and heart, 150,000. We are doing only 3,000 kidney
transplants and 500 liver transplants a year because there are not enough
donors. In Tamil Nadu alone, over 1,000 people are on waiting list for kidney
transplant. According to a study by the All India Institute of Medical
Sciences, of the 1,40,000 lives lost through road accidents every year in India
, 67 per cent deaths are due to head injuries. If organs could be harvested
from even two per cent of these cadavers, the demand for organs in the country
can be easily met.
The MOHAN Foundation has been trying to sensitize doctors, public,
and governments to the reality of brain death and to the fact that harvesting
organs from cadavers can save lives. It has been training medical social
workers to act as ‘grief counselors,' to counsel the families of brain-dead
victims and to help them come to terms with brain death and organ donation.
The difficult part is eliciting a ‘yes' from families at their
time of grief which is not easy. Families are never coerced into agreeing for
organ donation. They have to be counseled into giving voluntary consent. In the
last 15 years, counselors of MOHAN have managed to do organ harvesting from 500
brain-dead donors, from whom 1,400 organs were harvested. Mostly 54 organs can
be transplanted from a brain dead patient.
Now the point I was making is, if we become brain dead (let that
never happen) couldn’t we donate the organs to the needy? Most of us might be
willing to donate. But we are already brain dead, who will make the decision?
You will find a form in Mrs Uma Preman’s website fill it up & keep it with
you all times. Most importantly say your wish to maximum people, relatives
& friends so that, if somebody objects when we are brain dead your
relatives and friends would come up & say that it was your wish to have
your organs transplanted in case of brain death. & as M Sreenath said donate
your organs after death.
Myself & my wife decided to donate our organs after death but
to all those relatives & friends that I talked, the response was negetive.
I dont know why. Is it because we are all afraid of dying?? or we hope to go to
heaven with all our organs???
Secondly be aware of the lifestyle diseases…. Brain death is
mostly caused through accidents, so drive carefully…
Think about it Friends……
Source: Based on the E-Mail from Br. Anwar Saleem 5th October 2012.
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