PETALING JAYA: Even in death, staff nurse Santi Krishanan continued to care for others, fulfilling her final wish by donating her corneas and giving the gift of sight.
Her selfless legacy has drawn praise from Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and renewed calls to strengthen organ donation awareness in Malaysia.
“Looking into the eyes of her family members, the sadness was clearly visible, yet beneath it there was a deep sense of pride,” Dzulkelfy said after he visited the bereaved family in Bandar Seri Coalfields, Sungai Buloh.
“Pride because Santi devoted her life to saving the lives of others, and even in the final moments of her life, she continued to give ‘light’ by donating her corneas.
“She walked the talk. From fulfilling her father’s wish to donate his organs, to it being her own turn today,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.
“Rest well, Santi. Your duty in this world has been completed with excellence,” he said when extending his condolences to the family.
In the meantime, the Selangor government is planning to roll out a public campaign to encourage organ donation in 2026, in line with the Health Ministry’s efforts to strengthen Malaysia’s organ donation and transplant system.
State public health and environment committee chairman Jamaliah Jamaluddin said the initiative is driven by Malaysia’s persistently low organ donation rate, which requires coordinated action at all levels.
She said the percentage of organ donation was still very low and needed serious attention to encourage more people to donate their organs.
“The campaign will not only focus on donor registration but also on public awareness, particularly encouraging families to respect an individual’s wish to donate,” she told Bernama yesterday.
It was previously reported that Dzulkefly had announced that organ transplantation would be repositioned as a national agenda in line with the move to restructure the National Transplant Centre (NTC).
Health systems expert Dr Khor Swee Kheng said Malaysia’s public hospitals have sufficient transplant expertise, but the main challenge remains the shortage of organ supply.
“Transplant expertise exists and is ready in public hospitals, but the organ shortage requires a more systemic solution,” he said, noting that Malaysia lags behind internationally, particularly in living donor kidney transplants.
“In Saudi Arabia, living donor kidney transplants are performed at a rate of 198 per million population, compared with only about 57 per million in Malaysia.”
Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya Faculty of Medicine public health specialist Prof Dr Rafdzah Ahmad Zaki, said making organ transplantation a national agenda is a positive step, but success depends on community engagement, robust data systems and public trust.
She warned that although donor registrations are high, failure to translate them into actual donations could prolong the country’s organ shortage.
To address this, she said Malaysia must prioritise early donor identification, deploy trained donation coordinators, build community trust and strengthen system coordination.
“Improving public perception of organ donation goes beyond awareness. It requires trust-building, encouraging family discussions and a consistent, empathetic service system.
“A realistic, high-impact step is increasing the conversion rate of potential donors into actual donors through better early identification and referral systems, as well as placing trained donation coordinators in all major hospitals,” she added.
