Willing to pledge my organs for donation, says BRS leader KT Rama Rao | Hyderabad News – The Times of India

Hyderabad: Former minister and BRS MLA KT Rama Rao on Thursday said he was willing to pledge his organs for donation and urged other MLAs to also consider doing so.
Speaking in the assembly, the minister requested speaker Gaddam Prasad Rao to facilitate a programme on the assembly premises so that organ donation pledge forms could be signed by interested members. The former minister said that if public representatives took the initiative to pledge their organs, it could inspire people of their constituencies to follow suit.
Former minister T Harish Rao, speaking in the assembly, mentioned that before the adoption of the central rules on organ donation prior to the bifurcation of AP, there were 189 cases of organ transplantation in 2013. This number increased in the subsequent years after Telangana state was formed and the state was ruled by the BRS.
The minister, while welcoming the adoption of the central act, said that as per his knowledge, 3,724 people applied for organ donation and were awaiting transplantations. He said the new rules would facilitate swaps where one person could donate an organ to another and receive an organ from the other person. During the last 10 years, he said there were 609 organ transplantations done at NIMS, Osmania, and Gandhi Hospitals. He said during the previous BRS rule, 577 organ transplantations were done through the Arogyasri programme, and patients did not have to spend any money, which would have otherwise cost them Rs 20 lakh for the transplantation.