VIJAYAWADA: Minister for Health, Family Welfare and Medical Education Y Satya Kumar Yadav has appealed to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to provide a financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh each to families of organ donors.
Such support will not only bring solace to grieving households but also encourage more people to come forward for organ donation, he opined.
The Health Minister noted that under his initiative, donors’ funerals are already being conducted with government honours. As per GO 95 issued on August 8, 2024, senior district officials, including the Collector or Joint Collector, will attend the funeral ceremonies. In addition, the Jeevan Daan programme provides `10,000 as immediate financial aid to the families of donors.
Organ donation has seen a remarkable rise in recent years. In 2025 alone, 93 deceased persons donated 301 organs, giving a new lease of life to several patients across the State, he highlighted. Satya Kumar emphasised that despite immense grief, donor families have shown extraordinary generosity, inspiring society at large.
He proposed that in addition to financial aid, temporary employment opportunities could be provided to the family members of donors depending on their economic background. Between 2020 and 2025, 244 individuals donated organs and of them 69 were under the age of 30. This included one child under 10, 21 donors under 20, and 47 under 30. Of the total donors, 69 were women.
A recent case from Kurnool district highlighted the spirit of organ donation. Fifteen-year-old Maddu Kushal Veera Saikumar was declared brain dead after he met with an accident on January 2. With his family’s consent, his heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys were donated.
The heart was transplanted at Padmavathi Children’s Hospital in Tirupati, the kidneys at KIMS Kurnool and Apollo Nellore, and the liver at KIMS Kurnool. Satya Kumar lauded the exemplary gesture of boy’s parents, which gave a new lease of life to five patients.
Kidneys are the most donated organs. Over the past decade, 703 kidneys were collected from the cadaver donors, besides 3,155 living donors.