Skin Donation Can Save Lives, Should Be Promoted: Chhattisgarh Plastic Surgeon

Raipur: Dr. Sunil Kalda, a plastic surgeon hailing from Chhattisgarh expressed the need of creating awareness on skin donation, suggesting that skin donation may help the burn victims by providing them new lives.

Dr. Kalda, while interacting with the media persons, revealed that there is only a single skin bank in the entire Chhattisgarh, which is Kalda Burn and Plastic Surgery Center in Raipur. The skin bank is owned by Sunil Kalda’s institution, The Kalda Burn and Plastic Surgery Center.

In this skin bank, a harvested skin can be preserved for 5 years after its processing. Kalda’s institute is the first of its kind in India, having laminar flow and heap filter for making the flow of 100% fresh air in all cabins and glass cubicles.

“There is no legal framework to be followed as anyone above 18 years can donate. The donor should not have any skin diseases, HIV or Hepatitis-C or skin cancer. There is no need to match the blood group of patient and donor”, stated Kalda,

Adding, “Only one of the eight parts of the skin (thin layer) from the thighs and back is taken, which does not cost any disfigurement and even bleeding. In cases of children, the skin of either father or mother is taken”.

A dead person’s skin can be harvested within 6 hours of his death. On receiving a call from any of the dead person’s close relatives, a team takes a couple of hours to reach the place where the deceased body is kept. The free-of-cost process takes 45 minutes to get done. 

“The harvested skins are used during the treatment of burn patients. It provides relief to the immense pain caused by a burn, it saves the patient from getting infected and vastly reduces the treatment cost. The donated skin gradually dries and peels off automatically once the patient’s skin is recovered to a normal condition”, asserted the surgeon.