Fr Davis Chiramel, a catholic priest who gave his kidney to a stranger and set off a movement of organ donation in the Indian state of Kerala, urged the people to Oman to save lives by donating organs.
Speaking to Observer on the sidelines of World Malayalee Council in Muscat, Fr Chiramel, popularly known as the kidney priest, said one can wipe off the tears of a family the moment one readies to donate an organ. “One is actually saving or improving the lives of up to eight people besides their families, by undertaking to donate his/her organs after death, and the goodness that such an act fetches is immeasurable,” Fr Davis, the founder of the Accident Care and Transport Service and the Kidney Federation of India, said.
“First, such a dedicated group of donors as well as awareness programmes will save patients from the consequences of trade in human organs, help correct the misconceptions of organ donation after death, and educate the various conditions for donation by relatives.”
According to statistics from the MoH, there are nearly 2,500 patients who suffer kidney failure in the country. Muscat Governorate tops the list with more than 600 cases. At present, as many as 24 dialysis centres with a total of 373 beds operating in different governorates of the Sultanate of Oman help patients get their timely dialysis done.
Oman made great strides in organ donation by launching the Shifa app and by clarifying the same in the light of religion and Sharia, which allows organ donation based on certain conditions. This has largely stopped people depending upon foreign agents for organ transplantation. If someone wishes to donate his organs after his/ her death, register on Shifa.
Dr Nevine al Kalbani, Head of Organ Donation Department at the Royal Hospital, said that the app educates the donor about the types and stages of donation and raises the awareness of patients about organ transplantation and the health care provided after the operations.
“The new application has been helping in increasing the number of organ donors to meet the increasing demand on donated organs received by health institutions in the Sultanate of Oman,” Dr Nevine said.
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