The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Special postal cover on organ donation released

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Saturday, Aug 16, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Special postal cover on organ donation released

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The message of organ donation has perhaps finally found its most ideal vehicle – the ubiquitous postal cover. As the cover passes from hand to hand and state to country, it will literally take pass the message of life around.

A special postal cover to commemorate Organ Donor Week (August 8- 14) was released here on Thursday at a organised by Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network by T.Murthi, Post Master General (Business Development, Technology and Marketing). “It will go a long way in increasing awareness of organ donation,” he said.

The bulk of the message had already come through loud and clear as representatives of two families that had donated the organs of their loved ones who had been declared brain dead spoke about their experiences with a foreword by Sunil Shroff of MOHAN Foundation, who pushed cadaver donation was the cure for the crisis of scarcity of organs.

R. Selvakumar, Head of Clinical Biochemistry department, Christian Medical College, Vellore, spoke about how he and his wife Dhaya thought it was the most natural thing to do when they decided to donate the organs of their son John Deepak Selvakumar, who met with a road accident in 2003. The boy, a final year medical student at CMC, had been declared brain dead after a motorbike accident.

“He had a strong conviction that our bodies should be useful to others. So we decided to do what John would do were he alive – donate his organs,” Dr. Selvakumar said.

The family laid aside their grief and took the decision that would perpetuate life…John’s kidneys, liver and corneas live on in five individuals, whose life and vision depended on those organs.

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