THPF is raising both awareness and money for life-saving transplants

Organ donation rates in India are so low that even people who can afford transplant surgeries are unable to find donors

When only eight months old, Yadnya Awar developed liver failure because of a rare condition called Budd Chiari Syndrome. He needed a liver transplant to survive, his mother was ready to donate part of her liver to him — but the family couldn’t afford the Rs 2 million that the procedure would require.  

Sharing Yadnya’s predicament was seven-year-old Mayuresh, who had a hereditary disease called Citrullinaemia, which had claimed the lives of three of his siblings. For his family, too, the crucial liver transplant surgery was proving unaffordable. 

These two children are amongst millions of people every year who need organ transplants but cannot afford them. “In fact, as many as three lakh people die every year in India because they simply can’t afford the cost of a life-saving transplant,” says C Y Pal, Chairman, Renfro India and co-founder of Mumbai-based Transplants — Foundation to Help The Poor (THPF), a fledgling organisation that is attempting to make organ transplants a reality for patients who can’t afford them. “And it isn’t just the very poor who can’t afford the cost of transplant surgeries,” says Pal. “Given that a kidney transplant could cost up to Rs 700,000, while liver and heart transplants could cost up to Rs 2.5 million, these life-saving surgeries are beyond the reach of many.” Yet, no one knows better than Pal how transformational these surgeries can be. In 1996, a kidney transplant in the UK gave his wife a new lease of life. “The surgery helped her live a full and healthy life, and made me realise that this wasn’t even an option for so many others in India.” This motivated Pal to found THPF in 2017 with Darius Mirza, head of Transplant Unit at Mumbai’s Apollo Hospital; theatre personality Sabira Merchant and corporate honchos Gul Kriplani and Ashok Wadhwa. “Our aim is to raise funds for people who need transplants, as well as raise awareness about the importance of organ donation,” he says. 

It is a challenging task, given that organ donation rates in India are so low that even people who can afford the transplant surgery can’t find donors. Consider these statistics: as per Maharashtra’s Zonal Transplant Coordination Center, 558 kidney transplants were carried out in 2016, a mere seven per cent of the total number of patients who had registered on the transplant list. During the same time, 11 per cent on the liver transplant list received life-saving transplants. “We find that most patients in India with advanced liver, kidney or heart disease, die without receiving transplants,” says Darius Mirza. 

C Y Pal, Founder, Transplants — Help The Poor Foundation

Mirza and his cohorts are also striving to generate awareness about the importance of cadaver donations. “Presently, almost eight per cent of liver and kidney transplants are from live donors, usually relatives,” he says. Although the Human Organ Transplant Act, was passed by Parliament in 1994, India lacks a structured network of transplant centres and coordinators who can educate people about organ donation at public hospitals. “The government must step in to make transplants and organ donations more mainstream,” Mirza says, citing examples of countries like the UK, Holland, Austria and others, where hospitals by law follow the principle of ‘presumed consent’. This means that every individual is deemed an organ donor unless s/he specifically indicates otherwise. “Additionally, we need to sensitise ICU staff to the issue of organ donation, so that they are able to counsel patients’ families correctly,” he says. “In fact, we need to place transplant coordinators in the ICUs of every big hospital.”

Darius Mirza, Co-founder, Transplants — Help The Poor Foundation

To meet the costs of surgeries requires a lot of legwork. “We’ve tied up with the crowd funding platform Ketto,” says Pal. Using a mix of individual and corporate donations, crowdfunding, hospital discounts and grants from institutions like Tata Trust, THPF aided seven transplants last year, and aim at helping at least 100 more in the coming year. Although Mistry and Pal realise only too well that this will barely scratch the surface, it’s a start. Meanwhile, Mayuresh and Yadnya are thriving post their transplant surgeries, a living, breathing testament to the restorative power of transplants — and the need for more and more patients to have access to them. 

For more, visit the website of Transplants — Foundation To Help The Poor or call +91 98200 57519

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