Skin Donation – A Brief On Its Importance

Written By Yashvardhan Didwania (Grade 8)

“What is Skin Donation?”. Well, skin donation is when a person willingly gives his skin when he/she is dead to help those who need skin. Did you know that more than 70 lakh people in India suffer from burns or injuries every year in road accidents and most of them are women and children? In that 10 % of them are likely to die. So, what can you do for them?

Before that you should know of what importance skin is to a human. Skin is the largest organ in the human which protects us from harmful chemicals, environmental changes. It is vital for a human. Usually a skin can repair itself if there is a small injury to it but when the skin is badly wounded it cannot repair itself without external help. Skin from a dead person acts as a temporary option but it vital for the recipient (the person in need of the skin). Mostly the people get recovered as there is enough skin in the skin bank.

This is why donating your skin to the skin bank is very important so that they can give your skin to someone in need. It’s your option to choose if you want to donate your skin after your death to help them in need. Instead of burning the skin it would be more helpful if the skin would be donated to the skin bank after your death.

A common prejudice on skin donation is that your whole skin is removed from your body and then you look awful after death but that’s not true. Only the skin from the back, thighs and legs are taken and in no way is your figure disturbed or broken after your death.

So how can you donate your skin?

Many people in the world don’t know that skin can be donated the same way other organs are donated. Main cities like Mumbai in India have skin banks. These skin banks give your and others skin to those in need.  Some important things you should know before you donate your skin is that your skin can be used for 5 years as it’s frozen and that the skin has to be donated within six hours of your death.

So, what exactly happens after your death?

First after receiving the notice of your death, the team comes from skin bank to the location of the body and remove the skin from a simple procedure which takes around 45 minutes, they remove the skin and take it to the skin bank to store it.

There’re around 8 layers of skin in your body but don’t worry, they only take the topmost layer and therefore they do not cause any disfigurement in your body.

Are there any restrictions for donating your skin?

There’re no restrictions for people to donate their skin except their age. They’ve to be above 18 years of age to donate their skin and they shouldn’t have skin diseases like HIV & Hepatitis B, STD S, Septicaemia (Pneumonia, T.B, Etc), any kind of skin infection, having evidence of skin cancer. In that case they cannot donate their skin.

Featured Image Courtesy – mrDr.com.au