Milestone: State conducts 100 organ transplants so far
kolkata: Bengal has achieved a milestone of conducting 100 cadaver organ transplants so far and there has been a huge spur in organ donations in the recent time due to the relentless campaigns carried out by the state Health department.
Bengal has registered over nine separate cases of organ donations so far this year while in the last year the number stood at six. The pandemic had slowed down the organ donation movement last year but it has again gained momentum following some infrastructural revamps done by the Health department.
"We have plans to open more transplant centers in the state. Our team has been attending various awareness programmes throughout the state so that more people come forward to pledge to donate their organs. We are setting up non-transplant organ retrieval centres in all medical colleges. Our main purpose is to increase the organ transplants and also to spread awareness among people," said Dr Tamal Kanti Ghosh, state nodal officer on organ donation and transplant.
Various non-profit organisations are encouraging people to pledge and the Health department's strategy to involve various social organisations and private hospitals has already started yielding results. People are making pledges with the help of various NGO's. For example, 'Barasat Samajik Seva Pratisthan', a social organization of Barasat in North 24-Parganas recently held an awareness drive where a senior official of the WBSOTTO, Dr Arnab Roy delivered a lecture to make people aware. Nirmal Kumar Dutta from ROTTO performed a slide show demonstrating various aspects. Around 15 people pledged to donate their organs following the awareness camp.
"Over the last couple of years, organ donation rate in Bengal has increased manifold. More families are coming forward to donate the organs of their beloved ones. We should all pledge to donate our organs and help in saving lives," said Dr Gopeswar Mukherjee, a senior pathologist in the state who has already pledged to donate his body after his death.
