The ‘kidney priest’: how a cleric’s organ donation sparked a global campaign to register more donors
- Reverend Father Davis Chiramel, the first priest known to have donated an organ, encouraged the gift of giving at a talk in Hong Kong
- The number of patients who received kidney transplants in the city dropped by 50 per cent in 2019, signalling an urgent need for more donors
Seated in flowing robes, beaming through a snowy beard and circled by a gaggle of children attempting to pile onto his lap, Reverend Father Davis Chiramel exuded a remarkably Santa-like aura while waiting to give his speech.
The Indian clergyman’s physical similarities to Father Christmas may end there, given his lanky frame and South Asian heritage, but the “Kidney Priest” is considered just as much a symbol of giving.
“As a priest, I preach about Jesus sacrificing himself for others, but I have to practice it, too,” Chiramel says. “Ten years ago when Gopinathan could not find a kidney donor, I made the choice to donate my kidney. No thinking about it. I just did it.”
Although documentation for the transplant’s approval took seven months, the procedure itself took a matter of hours, and Chiramel was discharged from hospital within three days.
“I felt some pain shortly after the operation, but when I saw Gopinathan with my kidney the next day, I was able to forget it,” recalls Chiramel. “It is an unexplainable experience to give the gift of life.”
Chiramel is quick to emphasise that he recovered fully after a month and continues to maintain excellent health. To prove it, he took up a friend’s suggestion to skydive from 15,000 feet (4,600 metres) to raise awareness of the need for organ donation during a 2014 trip to the UK.
The priest doesn’t like his donation being labelled as charitable, seeming to view his actions as a duty.
“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. That’s why I can’t consider my actions to be charity. They are repayment to society.”
Anyone who meets the health requirements can sign up. Doing so is a blessing for those who need help.
The “kidney priest” was invited to Hong Kong by Manathil Gopinath, director of Malayalam Academy, which runs language classes and cultural events aimed at the local Malayali community from Kerala.
“The Christmas period is a time of giving,” says Gopinath. “But in Hong Kong, we’re often compartmentalised and separated from one another. The idea of sharing with strangers isn’t common, which is why I invited Father Chiramel to remind us.”
“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, who attended Chiramel’s talk at the Indian consulate. “Anyone who meets the health requirements can sign up. Doing so is a blessing for those who need help.”
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.
One of the city’s registered donors is 78-year-old Laura Purcell.
“It’s amazing how simple it is to sign up,” says Purcell, who was in the audience at Chiramel’s talk. “We have to get over the cultural hesitancy [of organ donation]. There’s such a spirit of sharing to it – when we die, we’re not actually gone, in that parts of us live on in others.”
