HONG KONG (SE): During the Christmas season, the Indian community in Hong Kong hosted a priest from Kerala at the Indian Consulate, Admiralty. Father Davis Chiramel is popularly known as the “Kidney Priest” in India ever since he decided to donate one of his kidneys to a patient ten years ago. Doctor Lui Siu-fai, chairperson of the Hong Kong Kidney Foundation, was among the audience listening to Father Chiramel’s appeal to spread the message of organ donation.
In 2009, Father Chiramel was approached by few young men asking for financial assistance for the kidney treatment of Gopinathan, an electrician.
He immediately agreed not only to help, but also be part of the group to raise funds for the treatment. Soon they raised 1.2 million Indian Rupees ($130,500). But, getting a kidney donor was almost impossible.
Although there are no accurate statistics, media reports estimate that 200,000 patients need kidney transplants in India every year and barely 4,000 to 6,000 actually get one. The only way for most people is close relatives, usually spouses or parents, donating one of their kidneys.
In Gopinathan’s case, his wife’s kidneys didn’t match his. There are agents who find donors for a price and desperate patients often have no other recourse. When Father Chiramel heard about this, he told the committee that he would donate his kidney.
“I have taken so many things from society,” he says. “How did I become a priest? How did you become who you are? You’re a result of so many people’s contributions. My actions are repayment to society,” says Father Chiramel.
His decision to donate his kidney was an impulsive gesture, one from which he had no intention of backing out.
“I preach in the Church that if you see someone in need of assistance and you have the means to assist him and if you don’t, then you are committing a sin. I thought if we preach this, then when an opportunity comes we can’t walk away. I didn’t think twice. If you think twice, then we won’t do many things. Because, then you think of the risks,” he says. The rest is history.
Father Chiramel initiated the Kidney Federation of India, an organisation he envisioned to assist all those who had kidney ailments. He moves around exuberating joy and love with his charming smile, but people in India affectionately call him the ‘Kidney Priest!’ Media hail him as the ‘Gandhi of Kerala.’
He and his organisation has been singularly responsible for half a million people in India pledging their kidneys for donation post-mortem.
The Kidney Federation of India that he set up is managed by six retired volunteers, and works towards changing the mindset of people towards organ donation. The organisation also has free dialysis machines for patients who cannot afford the expensive treatment, and it has vehicles that go village to village to test and diagnose people early for kidney diseases.
Also, if patients need kidneys, they counsel and explain to them how to go about it, including asking for government grants, forming local groups to help them raise funds and organising the maze of paperwork that is needed for a transplant.
South China Morning Post reported that more than 2,000 patients await kidney transplants in the city. According to Doctor Lui, the number of patients in the city who received kidney transplants fell from 60 in 2018 to 30 in 2019.
“Surveys have found that most Hong Kong people would be willing to donate their organs, but the majority do not sign the donor card,” says Lui.
Hong Kong residents can register their consent to become organ donors upon their death at the Department of Health’s website, where over 300,000 have already made the pledge. Minimal personal data is required, with the registration form barely taking up one page of a leaflet.
