Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH —
An Indian family agreed to donate the organs of their brain-dead breadwinner, who had spent most of his life in the Kingdom, where he had made a fortune.
Burjukandi Ramulu, 50, worked for a leading laundry company in Riyadh. He hailed from Kamareddy district in India’s Telangana state. Ramulu suddenly fell sick and was rushed to hospital but did not respond to treatment and was declared brain-dead last October.
After medical and radiological investigations, it was confirmed that the mad had a severe brain hemorrhage, resulting in his brain death.
The Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT) with the collaboration of the medical fraternity made a request to the family members back home in India to donate Ramulu’s vital organs if they were interested.
After formal approval from his family in India was obtained, Ramulu’s organs were removed by an integrated medical team to transplant them to prospective recipients.
The family members of the deceased were convinced that it was better to offer his organs to the needy rather than let it dry up in the mortuary. They took the decision to donate their breadwinner’s organs to the country which he had loved and where he had worked most of his life.
Acknowledging the positive gesture of the family, SCOT has rewarded them.
The rate of organ transplantation has been increasing in Saudi Arabia, on a par with the top 10 countries with regard to living organ donors.
It is also a leading country in the Arab world and Asia in brain dead organ donors, according SCOT.
According to a report, relatives of 70 percent of the brain-dead people refused to donate the organs of their beloved ones. The approval rate is almost zero in some areas.
Although the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars in the Kingdom has encouraged organ donations by issuing a religious ruling or fatwa, such donations have not reached the desired levels.
Many patients in the Kingdom are forced to travel abroad for organ transplant operations because of a lack of donors, the report said.
