KOCHI: As per the latest statistics, Kerala tops in deceased organ donation. The data available with KNOS (Kerala Network for Organ Sharing) shows that the organ donation rate in Kerala is 2.3 per million population, the highest in the country. Earlier Tamil Nadu was the top organ donating state. The national organ donation rate in 2014 was only 0.34 while Tamil Nadu and Kerala had the highest rate of 1.9 and 1.7, respectively.
The number of organ donors in Kerala is on an upward trend. In 2012, the total number of organ donors was only nine while it increased to 76 in 2015 and this year 52 have already donated organs. The total number of major organs donated during 2015 was 218 while the number is 144 so far this year. Kidneys are the most widely donated organ followed by liver and heart.
The other major organs harvested from deceased persons include lungs, pancreas, larynx and small intestine. For the first time, transplant of two lungs and four hands were done in 2015. Like the literacy movement which swept across the state during the 1980s, the organ donation movement is leading to social change in Kerala.
“The extensive media reports and massive awareness programmes have helped the state to achieve the position. It is the media which contributed to spread the awareness on the importance of organ donation,” said Dr Harish Pillai, CEO, Aster Medcity. It was in 2012 that the State government set up KNOS – as the nodal agency for transplants, to maintain lists of donors and patients waiting for organs, and to coordinate all donations. At present, more than 200,000 persons have registered with KNOS as willing cadaver donors.
