MANGALDAI, Feb 20 - �Who will declare a patient to be brain dead ?�, �What percentage of damage of an organ is treated for transplantation?� �Whom and how to contact in Assam if anyone of us are interested to donate organs?� �Whether the body of an organ donor after donation is returned to the family members?�. These were a few questions asked by a section of curious participants in the organ donation awareness programme held at Youth Club Mangaldai on Friday afternoon addressed to internationally acclaimed transplant super specialist Padma Shri Dr Sarbeswar Sahariah.
Dr Sahariah who was taking part as the principal speaker in the awareness meet organised jointly by two non government organisations Crystal Vision of Mangaldai and North East Care Foundation of Guwahati for the first time in Darrang district replied to the relevant queries raised by several participants including Pappu Kabeer, Dr Joykanta Saharia, Dr Kamala Kanta Bora, Rani Devi, Dr NC Beria, Renu Bordoloi, Swarnaprabha Kalita, Dr Amanul Haque among others and at the same time offered his gratitude to the people of Mangaldai for showing deep interest in the subject of organ donation which is quite new for most of the common public.
Earlier, Dr Sahariah in his discussion supported by audio visual media and recent statistical data, he explained how alarming the situation of growing cases of organ failures and pointed out, �In India every day nearly 6,000 people die waiting for organ transplant. Every 17 minutes, someone dies waiting for organ transplant and in every 13 minutes someone is added to the waiting list.�
On the contrary to highlight the dismal scenario of organ donation in India not to speak of Assam, he said,�The number of donors among one million people on an average is less than one.� He also cited the example of Pradip Das, one local leading entrepreneur who lost his life recently due to lack of a suitable organ donor. He pointed out diabetes and high blood pressure as the two major factors of organ failures and urged people to take steps to prevent these two diseases and also asked the media to play a pivotal part in this regard. Prior to the discussion, Dr Sahariah presented a short film prepared on the real stories of some organ donors including that of six month old �Sourya�, the youngest organ donor in the world of whom transplantation was successfully carried out in the Hyderabad-based medical institute �KIMS�.
The programme presided over by Dr Rama Kanta Bora, Senior Surgeon and progressive writer came to am end with the vote of thanks from Pankaj Goswami of North East Care and Foundation. Earlier, Bidyut Bikash Bhagawati, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Health), Darrang inaugurated the session with the ceremonial lighting of the lamp whereas Mayukh Goswami of Crystal Vision explained its objectives.