CHENNAI: Seasonal diseases and viral outbreaks manage to get a significant amount of attention from a large part of the medical fraternity and the governments involved, but kidney ailments that are almost always constant, debilitating in more ways than one and financially draining do not get even a small share of this focus.
This was what the TANKER Foundation tried to call out at its 27th Annual Charity and Awards Nite 2020 — dignified by the presence of eminent medical professionals in the field of nephrology and fellow warriors for the cause.
While the TANKER Foundation has been instrumental in ensuring free or subsidised medical services like dialysis is made available to a large number of people who need, it had invited among its dignitaries Vasundhara Raghavan, founder of the Kidney Warriors Foundation that focuses on lifestyle management of kidney patients. Vasundhara and her team across the country have done exceptional work in helping patients keep up a healthy diet during treatment, cope with depression and anxiety, manage joblessness with the little money they can gather on their behalf and much more.
But, at the end of the night, Vasundhara’s call was for reworking the rules that govern kidney transplants. “Many people are dying because they are not getting organs for transplant. People who want to donate, if they have to go through so much in the process, it is very disheartening. The illegal transplants that happen bother us much. A patient on dialysis for 10 years spends nearly Rs 21 lakh on it.
This is not counting the cardiac ailment he suffered. This is the cost that people are dealing with. How can a common man cope? If a transplant can be done, that money can be saved and people can lead a normal life. But our laws are so restrictive,” she points out. People involved in the field — doctors, researchers, etc — should be involved in the framing of the laws, she insisted.
The chief guest for the night, MM Murugappan, chairman of the Murugappa Group, put forth the suggestion for the foundation to make use of corporates that will make consortium research possible. “Today’s technology allows different aspects of amenities. Where this consortium of corporates, experts like Georgi Abraham (TANKER’s founder trustee), foundations like TANKER, institutions like learning (medical colleges, IITs), if we all get together, we will be very happy to catalyse this along with you. That way, affordable care can be made even more affordable,” he offered. An interactive segment had kidney patients undergoing dialysis or awaiting transplants share their stories, albeit after a ‘ramp walk’.