Last night at around midnight while watching the news, there was an item on a TUDM mercy flight from Subang to Ipoh. The mercy flight carries a team of specialists from IJN to harvest organs from a donor. I was pleased to hear this piece of news because deep in my heart, I hope that at least this offers hope for 14-year old Tee Hui Yi.
Today, I spoke with Sister Jamaliah Kario of the National Transplant Resource Centre (NTRC) who was also on the mercy flight. She confirmed that Tee Hui Yi indeed received a heart that she has been waiting for. I wanted to know whether there were other organs donated as well, but decided not to ask Sister Jamaliah as she sounded exhausted from last night's journey.
In any case, I came home this afternoon and got online. [Yes, the Internet connection at the office is still problematic]. There were some updated from the local papers on this. Utusan Malaysia carried the news on the mercy flight. I noticed aside from Sister Jamaliah, another name that I recognise is Dr. Mohamad Ezani Md Taib of IJN.
And this updated piece informs us of the heart harvested has been transplanted to Hui Yi. We also get more information of the donor from the same news article. The donor is apparently a Malay teenager who was killed in an accident, and his parents decided to donate the heart, lungs, kidneys and liver. Again, I am happy with this information. It goes to show that the level of awareness on organ donation amongst Muslims in the country have increased. I believe most Muslims in the country are becoming more informed that Islam does not prohibit organ donation.
Nonetheless, I beg to differ with the Minister of Health's statement as reported in this article in The Star. While it is true that there are greater number of pledgers compared to donors, I disagree that this is because families or next of kins object to organ donation. We have a good number of pledgers because of increased awareness. However, this number does not translate into donations because we have to understand that organ donation only takes place if the donor is brain dead while at the same time, the heart is still pumping because of the presence of a ventilator. If a pledger dies of natural death, then we would not be able to harvest organs such as heart or liver. We could only harvest tissues such as corneas, heart valves and the likes.
In most cases, people who die of brain death are not pledgers. Therefore, the doctors would have to ask their family members whether they wish to donate or otherwise. So, I don't think it is accurate to say that organ pledgers do not donate their organs when in truth, most of them are still alive and well. Even when pledgers die of old age, we could only take certain tissues, and not organs. The imperative phrase here is "brain death." For organ donation to take place, the person must be diagnosed as brain dead. Those who pledge, I believe, may not find themselves in such a situation unless they are involved in accidents or suffer from serious head injury.
This however does not mean that we should not be pledgers. By becoming a pledger and more importantly by letting your family members know that you are a pledger, should the need arise, for example if the pledger is diagnosed as brain dead, then the doctors and family members would know what needs to be done.
Another point that I would like to differ with the Minister is the reason for not becoming a donor. I disagree that it is because of religion. I have been giving talks on organ donation and religion since 1998, and I find that the masses understood that religion does not prohibit organ donation. Most of them said that their unwillingness or reluctance stems from the fear of the unknown (that is death). I think this is psychological in nature rather than religious.
Sorry for the rather long entry today. It's just that organ donation is a subject very close to my heart. And I would like to see Malaysians, who are always credited with virtues such as willingness to help others, take this esteemed virtue to a higher level. By donating organs, this could certainly give hope to a lot of patients with end-stage organ failure to carry on living. There is no greater gift than organ donation.
In the meantime, I pray that Tee Hui Yi would react positively to the heart she received. I am told that she is still in critical condition. My prayers also go to the other recipients of the other organs donated.
A special prayer to the unnamed donor in Ipoh. May this gift given in Ramadan be translated into bounties for the donor and his family in the Hereafter. And may Allah SWT bless the donor's soul.
6 comments:
Salam, Kelana,
I too, am glad to learn about Hui Yee's receiving the transplant. It has been a long wait for the little girl and I think they (her & family) were near despair already.
I wish all the best for her and hope the transplant takes on well. My do'a to the Allahyarham donor and his family, for being such noble people.
When one applies for a driver's license in the US, there is a box on the application form to tick as indication of consent to donate one's organs. Many a times, I felt like doing it but on the other hand, this would be culturally incompatible. There is a Chinese belief that if one were to kick the bucket without the full bodily organs, one would not be reincarnated in a full form later. Call this a folk tale or grandmother story, I think this is one of the reasons why there are many Malaysian Chinese who are neither a pledger nor donor.
Salam Jie,
I think the family of the teenager should be made a good example in our society for their noble deed. We need more people like them in the country.
Temasik_Temagi: Personally I am quite surprised to read what you wrote because all this while, Malaysian Chinese pledgers and donors make up the majority. In my years of giving talks on organ donation, I have also met the late Venerable Dhamananda who was the chief Buddhist monk in Malaysia, and he explained that because of the good deed that a Buddhist does in donating organs, they would be reincarnated in a better form.
Are they Chinese but Christians by religion or a Buddhist of a different sect?!!
Sorry for the late reply to your query, Temasik_Temagi. I have been trying to post the reply here for the past few days to no avail. Something must be amiss with Blogger. Anyway, to answer your question, I can't say for sure whether the Chinese pledgers are Christians or Buddhists. The data that I have only notes down gender, age group and race. Religion is not included. Having said that, the National Transplant Resource Centre (NTRC) may have that detail, but even then, I don't think they differentiate the various sects of a particular religion, be they Buddhism, Christianity or Islam.
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