SHILLONG: With cases of liver ailments rising in the country, including the North East, people’s apathy toward organ donation is a cause for concern, a senior doctor from Delhi has said.
Neerav Goyal, a senior consultant in the liver transplant department of Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in the Capital, said on Friday more than 2,300 transplants are done in Delhi every year and 4-5 per cent of the patients are from the North East.
However, there is less response to organ donation in India as relatives of deceased people do not want to donate organs.
“The deceased donor donation rate in India is around 0.34 per million, which is very low,” the expert added.
Goyal informed that 25,000 people suffer from liver ailments every year in India and transplant costs around Rs 19 lakh. He said they usually engage NGOs to raise funds for patients and the state and the central governments also extend help. For patients between 3-5 years of age, they opt for crowd-funding.
Majority of the patients in India suffer from liver ailments due to alcohol consumption or fat-induced damages, said Goyal, who has successfully performed a liver transplant on Robert Marbaniang three months ago.
Marbaniang’s son, Balajied Warjri, is the donor. “After several discussions, I finally decided to approach Apollo Hospital,” Marbaniang said.
The father-son duo said they are adhering to the advice of the doctors for better health management.
