Felicitation of Body Donor’s family at AIIMS Nagpur

Department of Anatomy of AIIMS Nagpur, organised a Felicitation programme for Body Donor’s family on 17^th October as a part of celebration of World Anatomy Day 2025. Invited family members of the body donors of the year 2024-25, were honoured in the hands of Institute authorities on this occasion.

Students of MBBS batch 2025, teaching and non-teaching staff of department of Anatomy; invited family members; facilitators of body donation campaign Dr. Chandrakant Meher (from Dehdan seva sanstha); Mrs. Anagha Vekhande (from ‘Daan Pawla Ho’ sanstha); Mrs Poonam Gupta (from Rashtra Sevika Samiti), administrative authorities of the institute Dr Prashant P Joshi, Executive Director and CEO; Mr Vijay Nayak, Dy Director; Dr Avinash Prakash, Dy MS and Dr Rasika Gadkari officiating Dean (Academics) were present on this occasion.

In the beginning, the Professor and Head of the department of Anatomy, Dr Aaditya M. Tarnekar, stated in his welcome address that the main aim of the programme was to convey the gratitude on behalf of the students and department to the noble souls who offered their bodies for educational purpose. He added that it was quite appropriate to felicitate the family members who execute the donation process fulfilling the wish of deceased donors. Dr Tarnekar said that such public gatherings provide an opportunity to disseminate the message of promotion of organs and body donations as a social commitment.

As the chief guest of the event, Dr Prashant P Joshi, stated that body donation not only fulfil the cause of medical educational but also provide us a great resource for research and skills development. Through cadaveric workshops, trainee surgeons get opportunity to learn intricacies of surgical procedures before it is performed in real life. He urged the audience to spread the message of organ and body donations to a much larger scale in society so as to strengthen the medical institutes in offering better care of the society.

The names of twenty body donors in the current year were: Late Shri Vimal Babasaheb Mohod; Late Shri Kervanta Shankar Lamsoge; Late Ms Shobha G Dabke; Late Shri Chandrakant Shah; Late Shri Vishwapal Dhargawe; Late Ms Suman Naik; Late Ms Sumati Sirpurkar; Late Shri Shankar Tatwawadi; Late Shri Deorao Ramaji Telrandhe; Late Shri Suresh Kadam; Late Ms Amrapali Chavhan; Late Shri Vinay Das; Late Shri Rajkumar Waswani; Late Shri Atul Pandit; Late Shri Sudhakar Dandekar; Late Ms Pramilatai Medhe; Late Shri Prabha Sadhu; Late Ms Aparna Chichghare and Late Shri Dinkar Choudhari. The invited family members of the deceased donors were felicitated by offering them shawl and eco-friendly memento, a planter. The family members then expressed their views regarding their experience of body donation scenario.

Speaking on this occasion, Dr Satish Kadam stated that AIIMS has developed a very good rapport with society in a very short period. Various specialty and super specialty disciplines of AIIMS have been serving the locality by their determined approach for patient care under the highly efficient leadership of a clinician and researcher of international reputation Dr Prashant Joshi sir.  

Dr Mrs Manik Shirpurkar recalled the day when their family took the critical decision of donating the body of her mother in law, after breaking the barrier of religious beliefs and social taboos. She said that such felicitation programmes conveys a very good message in society should be held in all the medical colleges to honour the decision of families. This way the deceased person becomes an immortal warrior (Dehdaan veer). Both Dr Kadam and Dr Shirpurkar offered saplings for plantation in memory of their beloved ones.

Mr Hrishikesh Mahashabde on behalf of Pramilatai Medhe, stated that the services offered by AIIMS benefit the entire region the members of Pramilatai’s family feel entirely satisfied about the donation. Mrs Poonam Gupta representing the Samiti as well as Sangh Pariwar (on behalf of Pramilatai & Shri Tatwawadi) also urged the audience to support the donation campaign actively.

Mrs Chaudhary, who came from Yeotmal, conveyed the message of social commitment towards body donation by a poem that meant that surpassing the traditional taboos in support for body and organ donations is the need of hour.

Dr Meher, a social worker with dedication towards body donation for the last 40 years, firmly asserted that body donation do not violate the religious beliefs and customs but sub serves dual purpose of supporting medical education and offer an eco-friendly way of body disposal. His research points that dead body is a natural treasure and if properly utilised, it’s no single part goes waste.  

Addressing the audience Dr Rasika Gadkari said that institute is providing modern health service to the society as it understands the current health needs. It is a result of good bonding with society that good number of body donations took place in the current year. Optimising student cadaver ratio will certainly yield in better undergraduate training and therefore better learning outcomes.

The batch 2025 volunteers conducted the programme. Forms of body pledging were distributed to willing people. Vote of thanks was proposed by Dr Kirubhanand C.

The programme concluded with national anthem, tea and refreshments. On this occasion, tree plantation was carried out in premises by all the invitees and the host department.