Awareness Event At The G.D. Birla Sabhagar
A day on which the world was left shocked in terror at the deviousness the human mind is capable of, we reminded ourselves of the tenderness the human mind is also capable of, by giving the gift of life – ORGAN DONATION.
An ad in the the Times of India as well as personal invitations by a mother-daughter duo of Shruti and Anoushka Mohta brought an enthusiastic response. Almost 500 people attended, signed their pledge forms and carried extra forms home for the family.
Legendary singer, Usha Uthup had the audience moved with her words that came from the heart about her personal experiences – she spoke of the anguish while waiting for a kidney for her son, and also shared that her mother and brother and uncles had all donated their eyes when they had passed away. Her rendition of ‘We are the World’ made it seem that the song was written for this occasion.
While young organ donation activist, Anoushka Mohta, made some compelling points, Mr. Subhash Kela, expert speaker from Mumbai, enlightened the audience with eye-opening details.
It was humbling to connect the true-life story of a young deceased donor with the recipient of one of her kidneys. 22-year old Surbhi Barot’s mother, who came all the way from Asansol to inspire us with her family’s story, choked while saying she felt see could see her daughter alive on stage.
A panel of very eminent doctors from different fields who had carried out transplants of the kidney, liver, cornea and several experts answered questions from the audience.
On the panel were:
Dr. V.V. Laxminarayan, Senior Nephrologist
Dr. Pratim Sengupta, Specialist in Kidney Transplant
Dr. Dilip Todi, Specialist in Liver Diseases
Dr. Pronob Dasgupta, Senior Gynaecologist
Dr. Jayangshu Sengupta, Cornea transplant specialist
Dr. Raghuvanshi, CEO Woodlands Nursing Home
Govt official, Dr. Aditi Kishore Sarkar, Chief Nodal Officer, West Bengal was also present on the panel to answer questions on Govt policies.
A panel of distinguished guests Jonathan Ward, Principal Commercial Officer of the US Consulate in Kolkata,
Sandeep Vyas, Sourav Kothari, Shikha Mehtaramani, Jyotii Vardhan Sonthalia, Khagesh Mirania Agarwal and Shubhra Shah Agarwal had an engaging discussion.
A newspaper article just that morning in The Times of India spoke of the dismal situation in West Bengal, where in the five years preceding 2017, a total of only seven organ donations had taken place – a grim average of about one deceased donation a year – reminding us of the enormous challenges that lay in front of us.
Hence it was heartening that the year 2018 saw 18 deceased donations in a single year in West Bengal.
