MUMBAI: An 84-year-old man became the oldest cadaver organ donor in the city and perhaps in the state. The family of the octogenarian consented to donate his kidneys and liver which saved two lives.
Their gesture facilitated the city’s 17th cadaver donation for the year, giving the dwindling programme a much-needed push.
The pandemic has hit the organ donation programme hard for the second year in a row. Both donations as well as the numbers of the transplants have declined with hospitals deploying their resources to tackle Covid-19.
Dr SK Mathur, president of Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC) that distributes cadaver organs between transplant centres, said that the numbers had started to pick up in February and March before the second wave started to become severe in April.
“With Covid cases reducing now, we hope to see an uptick in organ donation work again,” he said.
