Human organ donation, which was legalised in India way back in 1994, is an endeavour that not only saves precious lives, but also creates goodwill in society.

Did you know that a brain-dead person, by means of a multi-organ donation, can save as many as 12 lives?

Various organs of the human body, including the kidneys, lungs, heart, heart valves, blood vessels, middle ear, liver, pancreas, skin, eyes and bone marrow, can be used to save precious lives - provided the relatives of the patient consider organ donation seriously and make it happen.

Unfortunately, 16 years after the country passed the Transplantation of Human Organs Act 1994, only kidney donations by live donors are in vogue - cadaver donations have still not picked up.

At present, out of the 1,50,000 patients requiring kidney transplants across India every year, only 200 get kidneys by way of donations from the deceased.

"To bridge this gap, the states of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka have started various awareness drives to promote cadaveric donation. And due to their efforts, the country has seen a small leap from 0.08 per million in 2008 to 0.1 in 2010 - which is promising," says Sunil Shroff, managing trustee of the support group Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN) Foundation in Chennai.

Shroff estimates the total number of kidney transplants done in the country annually to be in the range of 6,000. "If the cadaveric donation rate is pushed to 1 per million, we can get 1,100 donors and 2,200 kidneys for transplants," he added.

About 1,40,000 road accident deaths occur annually in India, of which, 67 percent are due to severe head injuries, says Shroff.

"However, not even 1% of potential organ donors are tapped for cadaveric multi-organ donations," said Lalitha Raghuram, country director for MOHAN Foundation.

"On the other hand, in most developed countries, the cadaveric conversion is approximately 25% to 30%. This results in 90% of all organs for transplants coming from brain-dead donors," he said, adding that successfully undertaking such a donation process requires organising brain death certification and consent from relatives, followed by procurement of different organs and transplant by different teams of surgeons within a critical time limit.

Due to lack of a regional or national registry in place with accurate statistics on requirement of organs waiting to be transplanted or donated for transplantation, the medical fraternity has to rely on guesstimates. And the recent estimates portray an alarming rise in requirement for organ transplants in India.

According to the estimated statistics, every three minutes, a patient is added to the list of people requiring a transplant in the country.

"And to meet this rising demand, raising awareness regarding cadaveric organ donation is the only option," said Dr HL Trivedi from the city's Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre, which is actively involved in promoting this cause.