October 23, 2011
School of Medicine, Kochi
 

A team of five MBBS students, Karandeep Guleria, Anoop Kumar Singh, Brijesh Kumar, Piyush Agrawal and Sumit Agrawal, from the Health Sciences campus recently participated in the 39th Annual Meet of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
 

With events spanning social, cultural, literary and sports items, the meet saw participation from 83 medical colleges from all over India.
 

The Amrita student team won the second prize in an event titled, Pulsating Minds – An Undergraduate Medical Research Extravaganza, for the presentation of their paper.
 

“A total of 17 research papers were presented in the final round in which our paper titled Trends of Organ Donation in Ernakulam, Kerala won the second prize,” the students proudly shared.
 

They elaborated on the reasons why they decided to conduct such a study.
 

“Recent trends show that around 300 patients die every day in our nation due to a lack of organs for replacement. Our study was conducted to create awareness in society about organ donation and show its impact on the lives of people suffering from end-stage organ disease,” stated Karandeep of the winning team.
 

End-stage organ diseases are often times fatal. But proper treatment can save many lives. Organ transplantations come as a blessing for people suffering from chronic kidney and liver diseases and even heart failures. Worldwide, kidneys are the most commonly transplanted organs, followed closely by the liver and then the heart.
 

Organ donors may be living, or brain dead. Some organs, such as the brain, cannot be transplanted. Organs that can be transplanted also include the eyes, lungs, pancreas and intestines.
 

For their study and research, the students administered a semi-structured questionnaire to nearly 500 adults in Kaloor and Njarrackal in Ernakulam District in Kerala.
 

The students found that over 80% of the respondents already knew about organ donation; most were willing to donate if required. Nearly 6% of the respondents in urban areas and 10% in rural areas had already donated or pledged their organs for donation.
 

“According to our study, there seems to be good awareness and attitude about organ transplants in people,” the students concluded.
 

Acknowledging the help and support received from their mentors, they said, “Our guide and source of inspiration was Dr. Puneet Dhar, Professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery. We also received a lot of help from Dr. Sudhindran in the same department. Drs. Alexander John and Aswathy in the Department of Community Medicine also guided us.”
 

“We have immense satisfaction that we tried our best to educate people so that they would be willing to donate their organs selflessly for a good cause and thus serve humanity,” the students summed up.