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The most precious gift ever

We all love to receive gifts, be it simple or expensive, or practical or exotic. We value the gifts and hold them very dear to our hearts for a long time. They bring back fond memories whenever we see them. Many of us give our time, money or material possessions for a charitable cause. We might not know the name or the identity of the people benefitting from the good deed but we nevertheless donate when the cause appeals to us. Have you ever wondered what the most precious gift or donation is? 

I believe it is donating an organ to a person in need! It is nothing but literally gifting the opportunity to live a disease-free healthy life to someone who has been deprived of that. I recently registered myself as an organ donor at the Tamil Nadu Organ Sharing Registry portal https://tnos.org and am very happy to have done so. I will not be alive to see the person(s) whose lives and whose health improves after receiving my organs, but I will rest in peace knowing that a part of me will continue to live on meaningfully. 

While blood and eye donation are things many of us have heard of, solid organs like heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and pancreas are successfully being transplanted from a deceased individual to a diseased individual with good outcomes these days. Medical advances are so commendable that within a couple of hours of (brain) death of an individual, multiple organs are harvested and transplanted into different needy individuals if the individual was and/or the family members are willing to donate. There is a government registry that connects the transplant team in hospitals with the family of the deceased individual and the families of sick people in need of organs. As there is always a greater demand than there is availability of organs, priority is given to patients based on certain criteria like date of registration, severity of illness, age and other associated illnesses. 

A heart transplant is advised to individuals with severe heart failure resulting from various underlying heart problems and not responding to medical, surgical or device treatment. Chennai has become one of the leading heart transplant hubs in India today. Individuals from various parts of the country are being referred to hospitals in Chennai for the procedure, as the experience and expertise of the transplant doctors here are superior. 

The cardiopulmonary rehabilitation team at Cardiac Wellness Institute provides pre and post transplantation rehab for heart and lung transplant patients. It is not only important to take care of the new organs and the new lives by adopting a healthy lifestyle but also equally important to prevent diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and coronary heart disease which are much more common in people who have been transplanted with a new heart and other solid organs.   

While the transplantation team continues to be the core team involved in the care of transplant patients, especially their medication schedule and monitoring for organ rejection, infections etc., the rehab team supports the lifestyle needs of the patient such as nutritional requirements, exercise needs, mental wellbeing and psychosocial aspects. A strong relationship is established between the patient, family and the professionals in the rehab team during the weeks to months of the rehab program and this helps in addressing any anxiety or worries the the patients and their family members may have. In fact, the disease burden as well as the surgical procedure and the post-surgical recovery have such huge impacts on the psyche of the affected individual and the immediate family members that the comprehensive support of a wellness physician, a psychosocial counselor, a physical therapist, a yoga instructor and a nutritionist become very valuable.

The new lease of life that individuals get is something they are thankful for the rest of their days. So if you’re convinced that the most precious gift is donating your organ(s), why not register yourself as an organ donor?