Let’s bust myths around organ donation

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The director of the National Burns Centre in Airoli (Navi Mumbai) said recently at a press conference that we have a very serious shortfall of skin donations.

Cadaveric skin donations are not coming in to our four skin banks because of a lack of awareness and information and considerable superstition and myths that prove an obstruction to the team reaching the family where a death has occurred and a person registered with the skin bank has passed away. They are then stopped at times or face numerous hurdles that cause time to elapse and the team leaves without the donation.

Upping awareness is vital and those working in this space do hold a number of camps/awareness drives and other initiatives. We need more hoardings, credible social media campaigns, even Bollywood intervention (we have Bollywood actors as brand ambassadors for organ donation) that can give this a real fillip.

There needs to be a proper understanding from people, too, so that the team is not stopped from taking the skin. At the time of the death, the atmosphere is emotionally charged and often, people are unwilling to let their loved ones then become donors even if they had pledged their skin.

A number of superstitions abound like the body cannot be cremated without skin. That the person will be reborn without skin in the rebirth and more. Some cite religious scriptures stating they do not allow donations.
Others state that they had no clue about their loved ones pledging skin or other organs and may be that person was pressurized or not thinking correctly. Let us respect the wishes of the deceased and become educated and enlightened about organ donation.