SIUT holds walk at Quaid’s mazar to promote organ donation

Published August 6, 2018
PROF Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi leads the walk near the Quaid’s mausoleum on Sunday.—Tahir Jamal / White Star
PROF Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi leads the walk near the Quaid’s mausoleum on Sunday.—Tahir Jamal / White Star

KARACHI: People representing all walks of life, including patients who were recipients of organ donations, assembled at the Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum and staged a walk as a part of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation’s (SIUT) awareness campaign for organ donation to save human lives.

The walk was organised by SIUT in collaboration with the Human Organ Transplantation Authority Pakistan (HOTA), Pakistan Society of Nephrology (PSN), Pakistan Association of Urological Surgeons (PAUS) and the Transplantation Society of Pakistan (TSP).

Captain of the national cricket team Sarfaraz Ahmed was among the several celebrities and dignitaries who attended the event and promoted the cause.

The skipper said he was well aware of the issue and felt its gravity as his family had gone through the same ordeal in which his niece had to be taken abroad for organ transplantation.

‘I feel how noble this cause is and it should be promoted at all levels’

“I feel how noble this cause is and it should be promoted at all levels,” said Mr Ahmed, adding that it was the responsibility of every member of society to chip in.

Giving details of the motive behind organising the walk, SIUT chief Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi said the walk was aimed at promoting wider awareness in society of the need for increased organ donation.

He said a series of programmes had been initiated by the SIUT for saving lives of patients suffering from organ failure.

He urged people to come forward and promote the issue with organ donation decisions and encourage other people to sign organ donor registration forms.

“The deceased organ donation is an important human issue in our society which needs support from all segments of society.”

“Every year,” said Dr Rizvi, “Some 200,000 people in the country die on account of organ failure; and deceased organ donation can give them a new lease of life.”

He said the concept of organ donation after death was encouraged across the world to save precious lives.

Dr Rizvi, a prominent transplant surgeon who played the vital role in introducing transplant surgery in the country, said: “More lives can be saved if people become members of organ donation initiative and share the message to their near and dear ones.”

He said one could save and improve the lives of eight or more persons as an organ donor.

Dr Rizvi said an estimated 100,000 liver transplants were required every year and “this can only be achieved through deceased organ donation, where the patients dying in the ICU on ventilators can donate kidneys and liver after family’s consent.

“Living donor of liver transplant can fulfil the need of only a small portion of liver patients.”

During the walk at the Quaid’s mausoleum, the participants also offered Fateha at the Founder of the Nation’s grave.

Later, a good number of participants in the walk filled the forms to give their consent that they would donate their organs after death.

The SIUT administration said kidney transplant was the institute’s key proficiency as they had carried over 5,000 procedures since the programme was initiated in 1985.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2018

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