The queue of patients awaiting an organ transplant is getting longer. When related, live donors are not available, the wait gets even longer until a cadaver transplant option comes up.
But cadaver donation can be an option only if a person is declared brain-dead following an accident or a brain hemorrhage. In this case, a donor’s organs such as kidneys, liver and heart would be functional, but the brain would be dead.
Rules are clear that only when this happens can the organs be retrieved and transplanted to the body of the recipients.
Not all are lucky to find a kidney donor within his or her family. Invariably, they end up waiting for a cadaver transplant.
For instance, Jayaram G, a resident of Chikmagalur, had to wait for eight years before his turn came. Jayaram was only 12 when he was diagnosed with renal failure.
After undergoing Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) for eight years, he developed infection in the Catheter and had to undergo transplant immediately. Jayaram underwent a cadaver transplant in 2010.
“It was very difficult for me to go to school with these ailments, but I managed to pass my 10th and 12th with this condition. Post transplant, life has improved and I hardly spend Rs 2,000 per month on medication,” says Jayaram.
Similarly, Manjunath G, a resident of Nanjangud, had to wait for five years before undergoing a cadaver transplant.
He had to sell his site to ensure that he had enough money to be prepared to undergo a transplant when the call came. Incidentally, Manjunath was the first recipient of a cadaver donation and transplant surgery done in Mysore.
“I used to get tired very quickly when I was undergoing dialysis, but it is much better after the transplantation. Although I have to keep myself in good health by not eating outside and not venturing into crowded places, life is much better now,” he adds.
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