A cardiologist, Dr. Kola Olawale, is urging more Nigerians to register as organ donors to save lives and improve the quality of life of others.
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Dr. Olawale made this plea on Saturday in Abuja, alongside Kenneth Azubuike, a medical doctor and Joyce Effiom, a gyneacologist, who told news about how she donated her son’s kidneys and heart.
“When my son was 15 years old, he had an accident, and the doctor declared him brain dead.
“We were planning to bury him when we learnt that a girl on his hospital floor had two bad kidneys. “My husband and I decided to ask the doctors to check my son’s compatibility with the girl, and miraculously, they matched.
“We gave her the kidneys and donated his heart for research, but we were informed a few days later that someone received his heart.
“We went to visit the recipient that very day and once I saw him, I began crying because I knew a part of my son lived on in someone else.
“I think those donations helped me grieve and heal quickly because I will always see my son in those children.
‘Those children will grow to become great people because they have a part of a great human being in them, my son is and will always be remembered as a hero and that makes me very proud and happy,’’ Effiom narrated.
Pleading with Nigerians to emulate Effiom, Dr. Olawale said, “In Nigeria due to religious and traditional reasons, some people see donating and receiving organs as an abomination.
“I have heard people say that they cannot donate their organs because they have to return to God the same way they came to earth.
“Fact is that our bodies will decay in the soil and it will be a waste of vital cells, instead of wasting the cells, we should celebrate our loved ones by donating their organs to save the life of another individual.”
