A ‘tree’ to honour organ donors

CHENNAI: They may be dead but a part of them lives in the people they gave life to. A private hospital in the city on Monday unveiled the identities of some of these heroes by embossing their names on lamps and hanging them on the replica of a banyan tree.
As part of an organ donation drive, Apollo Hospitals, Greams Road, has installed a ‘Tree of Life’, with names of organ donors. As part of the 30-day awareness drive, the group is also running a digital pledge to spread awareness and to motivate people to pledge to donate their organs.
Darez Ahmed, mission director, National Health Mission, Tamil Nadu, felicitated the families of donors at a function held in the hospital
A single donor can save up to nine lives and can help as many as 50 people. Every year, almost 5 lakh people lose their lives in India due to non-availability of organs. Over 50,000 people await for a kidney transplant, but only 5000 get one. The situation of shortage is almost similar for the vital organs such as heart, liver, lungs, and pancreas.
Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, said although the organ donation rate has grown worldwide, India continues to lag because of poor awareness. “With a population of more than 120 crore, India’s organ donation rate is one of the lowest with 0.3 donations per million, while Spain has a donation rate of 36 per million and US 26 per million,” he said. This at a time when the country is also seeing huge rise in chronic diseases, he added. “We need to make a difference, and it needs to start with each one of us signing up for the donation programme,” said Dr Reddy.