The Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) observed World Organ Donation Day on Friday with the primary aim of spreading mass awareness about the importance of organ donation and motivating and encouraging the members of the society to pledge their organs to save precious lives.
Medical experts highlighted the alarming figure of deaths due to organ failure and said that in Pakistan more than 150,000 people died each year due to end-stage organ failure.
This figure includes 40,000 patients of kidney failure, 70,000 of liver, and 15,000 of heart. The main reason for death in the majority of these patients is the unavailability of organs.
The speakers explained that the process of organ donation involves retrieval of organs like heart, liver, kidneys, intestines, lungs and pancreas, as well as transplanting them into patients whose organs have failed and they need a transplant for their survival.
Explaining further, they said that there is no definite age limit for anyone to become an organ donor, but it is only possible for someone to become an organ donor once the donor dies on a ventilator in a hospital setting.
In the case of natural death, tissues like cornea, heart valves, bone and skin can be donated. The experts highlighted the fact that so far 10,383 persons have pledged to be deceased organ donors by a registration with the Transplant Society of Pakistan.