Donate an organ and save a life

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India] Aug 25 (ANI/Mediawire): Last week, I was on a virtual call with about 30 people from around the globe, celebrating the one year anniversary of a successful kidney transplant of Manish (name changed) from an altruistic donor (his close friend and associate) performed at Cedars Sinai Medical Center -Los Angeles in July 2019. The virtual video meet was truly inspiring and refreshing for me to be a small part of, in this global COVID pandemic & conundrum of the national lockdown & global economic meltdown. Despite the huge logistic and financial challenges of this once-in-a-lifetime endeavour, it was worth every bit to see Manish's life change forever, for the good.
Kidney donation is the ultimate act of generosity that offers a ray of hope to millions of patients suffering from end-stage kidney disease (ESRD) and provides them with a unique opportunity to return to a life of normalcy and freedom from the countless sessions of dialysis they would otherwise need.
Close to three lakh kidney failure patients in India need a kidney transplant every year, but only 6000-7000 transplants are actually conducted, which results in a lot of deaths due to a shortage of organs, simply because people insist on taking their organs with them to the grave.
One act of kindness being a living related donor (to a family member), deceased donor (to anybody after death), marginal donor (medically evaluated & approved) or a swap /domino transplant donor (in cases of incompatibility (blood group or HLA) can prove to be lifesaving and life-changing.
Donating an organ after death is more than just the physical act of giving a part of your body that is of no use to you anymore. It is about celebrating our lives!
Many of us believe that we should make ourselves useful and help people who are less fortunate than we are. Organ donation gives us the opportunity to be of use and help people even after we are not around anymore.
Give yourself and those in need, an elixir of life by pledging your organs, today.
(Dr. Jatin Kothari, MD, DM is a Consultant Nephrologist & Transplant Physician at Hinduja group of hospitals and Apex kidney foundation in Mumbai, who is currently working in the field of Academic nephrology education and Swap kidney transplant procedures all across the country. He along with his colleagues established the Apex Kidney Foundation and Apex Swap transplant registry (ASTRA) in 2008 and 2010 respectively to look at innovations and new ways of improving kidney care and legal transplants in the country.)
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