Dr Sujata Patwardhan of ZTCC-Mumbai said, "Notifications of brain dead patients have increased in public hospitals which is a good sign. All public hospitals should take serious interest in cadaver donation which definitely help to curb illegal practice."
A day after Powai police detained four people in connection with the kidney racket, 55-year-old Ashvin Shah — a chronic kidney disease patient from Kandivli — says government needs to make the live-related kidney transplant more patient-friendly and encourage cadaver donation.
Shah, who has been on dialysis for the last 15 years, had no option but to wait for cadaver donor as his family members were unfit for donating their kidneys. "I was diagnosed with the end stage kidney disease in 2009. I registered myself with various hospitals in the city for cadaver donation as my wife's kidney was not fit for donation. My brother is diabetic and there is no one else in the family who can donate me," said Shah.
With only 25-30% of his heart functioning, Shah has to get dialysis done four times a week. "I worked as a finance broker which involved lot of running around. After being diagnosed with kidney disease, I am spending a retired life," said Shah. His monthly expenditure on dialysis is around Rs 30,000. "I can not afford the dialysis. I do not have that kind of money nor do I want to opt for any illegal method to get kidney transplant surgery done. I have been waiting for 15 years and there seems to be no respite to my suffering," said Shah.
He is one of the 3,100 kidney patients who are on the ZTCC's waiting list for kidney transplant. Health experts say long waiting list for cadaver is biggest problem. They say while up to 4 lakh patients suffer from chronic kidney disease in India, only one per cent get access to a kidney transplant. Doctors feel that since the public hospitals see more number of accident cases, chances of getting brain dead patients in public hospitals are more than private hospital and this will bring down the gap between the demand and availability of organ.
All patients waiting for an organ have to be registered with ZTCC. This committee is responsible for maintaining a registry of people waiting for organ, the main aim is to promote cadaver and organ donation, and transplantation. It also make sure that the organs are distributed fairly, according to the guidelines prescribed by the government.
Dr Sujata Patwardhan, general secretary, ZTCC-Mumbai said: "Notifications of brain dead patients have increased in public hospitals which is a good sign. All public hospitals should take serious interest in cadaver donation which definitely help to curb illegal practice." As per ZTCC, in 2015, 42 cadaver donations were recorded. This year till 15 July, 31 cadaver donations had been done across the city. In 2016, till date only three cadaver donations taken place from public hospital, out of 2 from KEM hospital and one from Rajawadi hospital.
"It is a known fact that government hospitals get a number of brain dead patients as compared to private hospital. It is high time that government medical college and hospitals should start actively reporting brain dead cases. The government needs to make them accountable. Public hospitals have been lagging behind because of lack of motivation and machinery. If the state government really wants its cadaver organ donation programme to be a success, it must adopt the model of Tamil Nadu government," said Dr Jayesh Lele, president, Indian Medical Association, Maharashtra.
Rising numbers
- 1,50,000 people in India are waiting for a kidney transplant; however, only 3,000 of them receive of them are able to receive a transplant. Only 1 out of 30 people who need a kidney receives one. 90% of people in the waiting list die without getting an organ.
- Patients with diabetes and high blood pressure tend to spoil their kidneys
- 3,100 end stage kidney disease patients are registered with the ZTCC to receive a kidney. The number of patients waiting is up to 10 times more than those who end up receiving one.
- In India, more than 2 lakh new cases of end-stage kidney disease are present each year. Of these, about 70% manage to get access to dialysis, but almost two-thirds of these give up because of non-affordability and non-availability of treatment.
- India has close to 1200 nephrologists practising across the country. There are 2,500 dialysis centres with a total of approximately 20,000 dialysis machines, predominantly in the private sector (90%) and mainly concentrated in cities, especially metros. There are around 65,000 patients undergoing hemodialysis at these centres.
- Cost of kidney transplantation: Rs 4-6 lakh
- A kidney recipient has to spend Rs 12-15,000 on post-operative care for six months; life-long medication costs Rs 10,000 every month.
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