Chandigarh: With 41 deceased donations impacting 110 lives last year, the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) has won the national award for Chandigarh as in the ‘UT with the highest number of deceased donors’ category for its contribution towards the promotion of cadaver organ donation.
The award was given at the 13th Indian Organ Donation Day by NOTTO (National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation) in New Delhi.
Also Ashish Sharma, Prof and Head, Department of Renal Transplant Surgery, PGI, was awarded for ‘exemplary performance in transplant surgery’ award during the event.
Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya gave the awards at a function on Thursday.
It is the fifth time that the national award has been bestowed for the PGIMER for its contribution towards the deceased organ donation programme, a hospital spokesperson told IANS.
Earlier, PGIMER has won four national awards in the best hospital category in the deceased donation programme for 2015-16, 2016-17, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
The award for being the UT with the highest number of deceased donors’ instituted this year has been won for the first time.
Expressing happiness at the achievement, PGIMER Director Vivek Lal said, “It’s an honour to be acknowledged nationally for our contribution towards the promotion of the deceased organ donation programme.
“With 41 deceased donations impacting 110 lives, over 150 awareness programmes were organised in 2022. Chandigarh was ahead of all other union territories in the deceased donation programme. The national awards as ‘UT with highest number of deceased donors’ is a reiteration of the fact that we at PGIMER have been able to make a difference in the Union Territory in the field of organ donation beyond the confines of our hospital,” he said.
The Director further said, “The timing of the award is perfect as the PGI has accomplished 300 deceased donations impacting 714 lives since the inception of the deceased donation programme in 1996.”
What is really noteworthy is that with 229 out of 300, i.e., 76 per cent of the deceased donations impacting 542 lives have been done since the designation of the PGIMER as ROTTO in 2016.
However, the most emotional moment of the event came when Dinesh Singh Thakur and Arnav Thakur, husband and son of donor Nisha Thakur (43) and Gurnam Singh and Harmeet Singh, father and brother of donor Abjot (13) were felicitated for their braveheart decision to donate the organs of their deceased dear ones and got a standing ovation from the audience for their gesture.
Acknowledging the awards, Prof Vipin Koushal, PGIMER Medical Superintendent-cum-Nodal Officer with ROTTO, said, “We at PGIMER dedicate these awards to all the brave-heart donor families for their unparalleled benevolence which helped saving hundreds of lives and in fact, sustain the deceased donation programme in PGIMER.
“The awards are also dedicated to all multiple teams working at PGIMER who have made the deceased donation programme a success story in PGIMER.”
