MADURAI: Senior doctors of Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre (MMHRC) in Madurai have today appealed to the State government to include organ donation as a topic in school syllabus to increase awareness among students from young age itself.
“Even though we are conducting programs to motivate people for donating organs, the organ donation rate is still very low in our country. The mindset of people must change, and as a first step our suggestion is to bring it into school syllabus so that children will come to know how organ donation will save lives,” Dr.K.Sampath Kumar, Head of Department and senior consultant, Department of Nephrology, MMHRC, told reporters at a press meet organized by the hospital here today-August 12th 2025.
The press meet was organized in connection with World Organ Donation Day on August 13th to raise public awareness about live and cadaver donations.
Dr.Ramesh Ardhanari, Medical Director and senior consultant, Department of Medical and Surgical Gastroenterology, had commended the public recognition initiative taken by Tamil Nadu government to motivate people for organ donation.
“After the special initiative by State government, there is a huge increase in organ donation as people are now coming forward. Still, we need to do more in this regard. Lack of public understanding about brain death and emotional hesitation by family members are a few reasons and it is time to follow the models followed in countries like Spain and Portugal where organ donation is a mass movement and people there openly declare I am a organ donor. The automatic consent of family members must come in our State and in our country,” Dr.Ramesh Ardhanari said.
The Meenakshi Mission Hospital in Madurai has so far successfully performed 2,000 kidney transplants and 60 liver transplants. Dr.N.Mohan, Head of Department of Medical Gastroenterology, MMHRC, has informed that the hospital is planning to perform liver transplants for children in the comings days.
Dr.B.Kannan, Medical Administrator and Dr.Srinivasan Ramachandran, senior consultant, Department of Medical and Surgical Gastroenterology, have explained through a press release about the latest advancements in organ transplantation and the rapid strides made by MMHRC in kidney and liver transplants through advanced medical infrastructure and doctors’ expertise.
