Students made aware of organ donation

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 21

Transplant Institute of Aykai Hospital, NGO GLODAS and GNIPS School organised a function to celebrate World Organ Donor Day at Aykai Hospital. The function was organised under the leadership of Urologist and Transplant Surgeon Dr BS Aulakh, Chairman of Aykai Hospital and President of NGO GLODAS.

More than 25 schools from the city took part in the celebrations. A poster-making competition on the theme of organ donation was organised and 200 students participated.

DS Chaudhry, Principal Commissioner Income Tax, presided as chief guest of the day. He said the need to celebrate this day was to make organ donation not only acceptable in society, but to make it a norm.

He said, "When my father passed away; there was resistance from all to donate his eyes. Only when I and my sister took a stand, the donation was possible."

Dr SP Singh, District Family Welfare Officer, Ludhiana, and Sanjay Talwar were present to support this noble cause.

Dr Aulakh said, “Organ transplantation is nothing less than a miracle of the 20th century, which has improved lives of hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide. As per statistics, nearly 5 lakh people die in India every year for want of organs, while 2 lakh people die of liver disease and 50,000 of heart diseases. Of the 1.5 lakh people awaiting kidney transplant, only 5,000 get one. So there is a need to create awareness about organ donation.”

As many as 50 kidney donors who were operated at Aykai Hospital were also present on the occasion.