Karnataka has missed 20 potential organ donations this year, so far. This is mainly due to reluctance for consent by families of potential donors and misconceptions surrounding organ donations.
Lijamol Joseph, Chief Transplant Coordinator at Jeevasarthakathe, the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), which is the nodal agency that facilitates cadaver organ donations, said while 44 donations were missed in 2019, 43 were missed in 2020 and 32 in 2021. This year, 20 have already been missed in the half year, she said.
In fact, routinely, although SOTTO gets a substantial number of organ pledges, not even 5% of them actually turn into donors.
