Vijayawada, March 2023: People who donate part of their organs, livers or kidneysto their family members are called living donors. These are brave, competent & self-sacrificing ladies who manage to pull their family through one of the biggest crisesthat anyone can imagine, through sheer guts, faith & hard work.
Manipal Hospital, Vijayawada in collaboration with The South Asian Liver institute Liver Transplant Team come together to salute these REAL heroines in a ceremony to felicitate them at Manipal Hospital, Tadepalli.
Today we celebrate Women’s day, in recognition of the fairer gender without whom life itself would not exist. But in addition to this crucial fact, many things in our lives would fall apart without women from mothers & sisters in families, to doctors & nurses in Hospitals, managers & sales ladies in malls, administrators& tele-callersin offices, to chefs& cleanersin schools. Many of these women unfortunately work without their fair share of recognition, and receive a lessor percentage of remuneration.
Manipal Hospital, Vijayawada for this year arranged a tribute for these special ladies at which occasion Prof. Dr. Tom Cherian, Senior Liver specialist & Transplant Surgeon, founder of South Asian Liver Institute commented “Although more recently policewomen, sports women, women soldiers are all slowly beginning to be recognised for their contributions, but I see every day a particular type of heroin – a lady organ living donor! I feel for these women especially for many reasons. 1. They are unsung, no-one even knows their names 2. They happily donate a large part of their own liver for their loved ones without a second thought for their own safety”.
Prof Tom Cherian liverspecialist, went on to say “However the most important fact that most don’t notice is that they do it whilst going through one of the biggest crises of their lives. As you can understand a liver transplant is only done as a last option for patients and by this time, the liver recipients are quite sick and at risk of death. In these circumstances the well member of the family (often the same person as the donor) has to cope with the stress of being a donor, having a loved one critically ill AND moreover hasto arrange or facilitate the various mandatory paraphernalia that goes with such a complex operation from certifications to finances. It is THIS unthinkable scenario that these ladies have to face which makes me call them ‘the REAL Heroines’ who deserve ourrespect& utmost gratitude. I don’t have anything against the pretty movie heroines that our social media is full of. But I cannot help but thinking & noticing that the beauty of what these ladies are achieving through theirsheer determination, selfless love and guts, far surpasses the superficial beauty seen on any silver screen. Regardless of any of the facts mentioned above, although 75% of the transplants in the country are done this way I do feel a little sad that such heroines and people in general are even needing to do this! What I mean is that if every cadaver donor (i.e. from people who are brain stem dead) is utilised, we in India would not need to subject any of these wonderful women though such an ordeal”.
Dr Sudhakar Kantipudi, Hospital Director, Manipal Hospital, Vijayawada added that , “We are proud to be associated with such wonderful people and proud of our transplant programme and the difference it is bringing to people’slives, but it would not have been possible without these brave people. I conclude with a respectful salute to these lady donor heroines, an affectionate ‘thank you for all you do’ to all women on women’s day; and a plea from us to everyone, “DON’T WASTE CADAVER ORGANS”.