PM Modi lauds Tamil Nadu for leading in organ donation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday commended Tamil Nadu for its organ donation programme, saying the state has done “extremely well” in this regard.

In his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address, Modi highlighted the need for organ donation in the country, saying there was an annual need of more than 2.5 lakh kidney, heart and liver donations.

“Only 5,000 successful transplants are done every year. Every year we need at least one lakh eyes. But we manage to do only 25,000 transplants. The organs of those who die in road accidents can be donated. There are only a few legal formalities in this,” he said. He said some states had done well in this regard by cutting short the paper work.

The department of health and family welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu, initiated the State Cadaver Transplant Programme in September 2008. At present, there are 55 licensed organ transplant hospitals. Both government and private hospitals participate in this programme (www.tnos.org).

In 2014, 155 deceased organ donors gave new life to more than 500 people in Tamil Nadu. This is the highest number of such donations the state has seen since the cadaver transplant programme was initiated in 2008. The state also saw the highest number of deceased organ donors on a single day when on February 15, the families of 19 people who were declared brain dead agreed to donate the organs of their kin.