St. Joseph’s College students volunteered for Fortis Hospital’s organ donation campaign
Bangalore: Fortis Hospitals, Bangalore in collaboration with St. Joseph’s College conducted a three day organ donation campaign to highlight and spread awareness about organ donation among the general public from 19th to 21st June, 2017. The campaign is taking place at various branches of St. Joseph’s college (MG Road, Brigade Road, St. Marks Road, Residence road and Richmond road traffic signals). More than 150 students were a part of the campaign in which they stood at the traffic signals holding placards with organ donation slogans to create awareness. The students also distributed organ donation forms to the public while they waited at the signal. Leading by example, more than 500 students from the college pledged to donate their organs.
Speaking at the event, Dr Vivek Jawali, Chairman, Department of Cardio Vascular Sciences, Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council, Fortis Hospitals, Karnataka said, “In India, finding a donor match is a difficult task for the organ recipient’s family and this challenge is compounded by lack of awareness. Over the last five years, the organ donation rate in the country has increased ten-fold from 0.05 to 0.5 per million and is likely to touch the 1 per million population mark in 2016. We have made a start but still have a long way to go.”
Every year almost 5 lakh people die in India due to non-availability of organs. Nearly 1.5 lakh people are in dire need of kidney but only 3 thousand of them receive one. Vital organs such as the heart, pancreas, liver, kidneys and lungs can be transplanted to those whose organs are failing. A single donor can save eight lives by donating the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas and small bowel.
Dr Vivek Jawali further added, “India experiences acute shortage of organ donors every year. The lack of knowledge about the organ donation is quite evident and this is what we want to achieve through campaigns like this. An organ donation means giving a second chance at life to someone and allows them to return to a normal lifestyle. These initiatives have the ability to spur people to come forward to donate organs of their deceased beloved. This will save and help elevate the quality of lives of many patients in need of organs. We are looking forward to more such initiatives and campaigns in the future.”
The ‘More To Give’ campaign by Fortis focuses on sensitizing public about the need of stepping up to donate organs for saving lives. By raising awareness, the campaign aims to emotionally connect with the country to trigger a nationwide movement for people to ‘pledge’ their organs and to make the process of pledging easily accessible to the masses.