Deceased organ donations can save thousands of lives: Experts

Karachi: As many as 150,000 patients die in Pakistan each year due to organ failure and majority of these deaths can be prevented if organs are available for transplantation. This was stated by experts during a  pre 11th-CRITICON Critical Care Medicine Congress’ workshop on ‘Deceased organ donor for transplantation’ organized by Centre for Organ Donation, held at the Agha Hasan Abedi Auditorium of Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) on Tuesday.

Dr Anwar Naqvi welcoming the guests highlighted the importance and purpose of the ‘Deceased Organ Donor for Transplantation’ workshop which will provide a comprehensive insight regarding the different aspects of the program to all participants. He said that such workshops should be organized on regular basis to encourage people to become organ donors and save many precious lives in the country.

Dr Naqvi informed participants that SIUT has dedicated a Centre for Organ Donation for this purpose only, which can be reached at ( 021-111 HAYATI ) 021 111 429 284.
During the congress, the importance of deceased organ donation as a program and its effectiveness were discussed extensively. The experts said it is important to create awareness at every step to save precious relying deceased organ donation.

Majority of the organ failure related deaths can be prevented if organs are available for transplantation. They said all over the world countries have established a deceased donor program also including Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, and Bangladesh among others.

The experts explained that anyone at any age can become an organ donor, the first step is to make a will, fill a donor card and make this will known to the family. “Ideally a person needs to be in an ICU on a ventilator and after being declared brain dead, their organs may be saved and transplanted to save the lives of other people” they said.
They stated that organs which can be donated include kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, pancreas and intestine. The tissues that can be donated include corneas, skin and bone marrow etc.

Dr Manzoor  Hussain,  Dr  Ejaz  Ahmed, Dr Abdaal Wasim Khan, Dr Haider Mehdi, Dr Abbas Tasneem, Dr Mudassir Laeeq and Dr Qamar Abbas delivered various informative presentations during the workshop.

Dr Sajid Sultan moderated a panel discussion with Dr Akhtar Waheed, Dr Tipu Sultan, Dr Saadqa Aftab, Dr Khairat Raza, Dr GM Shaikh, and Dr Wasim Khan. Towards the end of the session, Dr Hina Abbasi presented the vote of thanks.