Organ Donation Crusader Passes Away

A crusader of organ donation in India passed away in Pune. She was Ms.Nayan Dhamdhere.

In both sickness and health she promoted organ donation in India with her full zeal. She worked for this mission from her hometown Pune and in the work she was helped by her husband Mr.Rajan and her father in law. She constantly organized campaigns on organ donation, distributed posters in English and Marathi, organized road shows and addressed meetings. She was so popular that she was often called to counsel families for organs in the event of brain death taking place at a local hospital in Pune.

At one stage she even stood up alone against the Maharastra organ-sharing network called ZTCC- opposing their policy that organs that originated in Maharastra would stay in that state; even if they were wasted and there were no takers of the organ there. She threatened to go on indefinite hunger fast on the issue in front of the state assembly, till in till she received a high level assurance that the matter would be looked into. Forming the first ever “Liver Patient Support Group’ in India she appeared in front of the Human Rights Commission to project her views on organ donation. She constantly worked for the cause even when she was low on her health. On many occasions she answered over 100 phone calls a day on the subject. Nayan was close to many in the medical fraternity. Some admired her and some were even were scared her of her guts and her free spirit. She always had the support of MOHAN Foundation as she was a true member and volunteer of the Foundation. Looking at her zeal she was appointed the Co-ordinator for leading the organ donation movement in Maharastra.

Nayan was true crusader. She was suffering from Budd Chiari Syndrome. This causes portal hypertension and liver failure due to blockage of vein between the liver and the body. This blockage results in congestion of liver resulting in its fibrosis. For this she had undergone a TIPS shunt in the London about 3 years ago. After the shunt procedure she had a few ups and down in her health. She was also on waiting list for a cadaver liver transplant. However miraculously she improved and was taken off the waiting list about a year ago. About 6 months ago due to the anti-coagulants she was taking , she developed brain hemorrhage and was in a deep state of coma and was on the verge of being declared brain dead. At that stage Rajan – her husband told the doctors that if she was declared brain dead, he wanted to donate all her organs that could be used. She however again made a remarkable recovery from this state of deep coma. After this setback she never regained all her strength. She had become very frail and lost some of her eye movements and strength. But she never stopped her work Even a day before she passed away she attended a meeting on organ donation.

If India had a few crusaders like her in the field of organ donation we would never have shortage of organs and the cadaver organ donation programme would just take off. Everyone who believes in the cause of organ donation should bow their head in respect of this noble soul. If you wish to send your condolences you can mail at [email protected] and this will be forwarded to her family. May her soul rest in peace.