Tamil Nadu to bestow State honours on organ donors

Lack of volunteers to donate organs has been a major impediment in helping patients who are in dire need of them and several initiatives to motivate people for donation have been taken up by Government and non-government organisations. One of them is State honour to the donor which was started by Tamil Nadu following Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s announcement.

The first person to be accorded the State honour was 43-year-old T. Vadivel. On September 26, the State’s Health Minister Ma Subramanian accorded state honours to Vadivel by placing a wreath on his body at the funeral which was held in Theni.

A senior revenue inspector in Theni Collectorate, Vadivel was declared brain-dead on September 24. He met with an accident a day before that when he fell down and sustained severe head injuries after a cow dashed against his motorcycle.

The official was rushed to a government hospital in Chinnamanur and then moved to Theni Government Medical College Hospital. Later, he was admitted to Madurai’s Apollo Hospital where he was declared brain-dead on September 24 by the doctors.

The family’s consent was obtained for organ donation and after that Vadivel’s liver, eyes, kidneys, and skin were retrieved to give them to patients in Apollo Hospital and Madurai Rajaji Hospital, and providing them a new lease of life.

Vadivel is survived by his wife Pattulakshmi, who works as a clerk at the Theni district court and two children — a 10-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son.

The Health Minister praised the family and appreciated their gesture of agreeing to harvest Vadivel’s organs despite their grief and loss. Talking to the media he said that after the Chief Minister had announced honouring of the deceased whose organs are donated, the State Government has paid its first honour to Vadivel. He added that this will continue.

The Minister informed that the Tamil Nadu Government will extend all support to Vadivel’s father to help him regain vision in his eyes. For this the family has been asked to come to Chennai for treatment, he added.

Apart from the Minister, other Government officials who paid their respects to Vadivel were Dongre Pravin Umesh, District Superintendent of Police, and R. Jeyabharathi, District Revenue Officer.