Mangaluru, Mar 15: Father Muller Medical College Hospital and Rotary Club of Mangaluru held the inaugural ceremony of Father Muller Rotary Skin Bank on Friday, March 15 at Fr Mullers Hospital premises.

 

The chief inaugurator of the event, Rotarian Major Donor, H R Keshav said, "Rotary club is like soccer, it's a team game. People say beauty is related to skin, and teachers always scare us by saying I will skin you alive. Skin is not easy to get and the kind of process that goes on is so tough and only big hospitals can manage it. Rotary club Mangaluru and Father Muller have both worked together and in years to come we have to do a lot of work in this sector and we can register ourselves as skin donors. Around 7 lac people were burnt today and there was a need to have good facilities in the proximity for the golden hour. They missed in treating and out of the burn around 15% patients died. A lot of awareness needs to be created on how you should have simple fire extinguishers and how they should be handled. Industrial accidents are increasing and what happened in Kadaba that saw acid attack everyone knows. We will ensure helping those patients. Skin banks are not as popular as blood banks but in the coming days we hope to see a change."

 

 

 

Also present on this occasion, Archibald Menezes said, "The inauguration of the skin bank is a memorable moment for our district. A day-long awaited dream has finally come true. This project has a similar background and when Rotarian R K Bhat was president. We touched upon this topic and we wanted to know where to implement it and the rotary club had its own conditions regarding hygiene and sanitation of the hospital and project should be used for the community and sustain people after once installed. A doctor suggested this skin bank and since Father Muller has expertise in this so we approached and within a few days Fr Richard Cohilo arranged a meeting with us and today we have completed it and we have inaugurated it today. We are proud to say that we are the oldest club in Mangaluru and we have contributed for many causes like this in multiple hospitals across Dakshina Kannada. Our club has supported in every possible way for education and other sectors. This is made to help the burnt victims and I extend thanks to Father Muller Medical College for accepting our invitation and working with us."

 

Fr Richard Coelho, director, FMCI, said, "God has given this boon of skin bank to Fr Mullers institute and Rotary Club Mangaluru. We are grateful and thank you for the concern, the concept of skin bank which  remained a dream till today. Dr Narendra Kamath has helped in bringing this and we are grateful to him. Skin bank was an unknown concept for us and people were not aware and we are also equipped with good plastic surgeons. The Mangaluru auto  blast victims were also treated at Father Mullers. There were politicians and police meeting them, but we still agreed to give them treatment."

 

"Awareness is not there in skin donating and we should bring awareness among people. Skin bank was first started in Delhi and now there are many all across India but the numbers are few. We assure best service to the patients and burnt victims and I request the Rotarians to give education and publicity so that the skin bank becomes vibrant and useful for burn victims in and around the district and nearby districts," he said

 

Speaking regarding the project, Dr Udaykumar, medical superintendent said, "This is a state-of-the-art technology which has been brought for the first time in Father Muller Medical College and in this initiative Rotary Club Mangaluru has helped us a lot in realising this. We do not take the skin completely. We just take the skin from the back and from the thighs and this is collected from the patients and kept in cold storage. This does not infect the patient and this process will help patients with skin-related problems and especially those patients who have burnt marks in their body."

 

On this occasion, all the guests and Fr Richard Coelho were felicitated. Ajit Menezes, Nelson Pais, Uday Kumar, Dr Aravind, Lydia Pais, H R Keshav, Richard Coelho, George Jeevan Sequera, Prakash, Shivani Baliga, Krishna Kumar, R K Bhat and others were present.