Govt moves towards common organ donation registry, ZTCCs yet to comply

"One of the most common questions that the relatives of the patients have before agreeing for organ donation is whether they will then be able to perform the last rites," said Anirudha Kulkarni, Manager-organ transplant, Jupiter Hospital. He was speaking at a training session meant for close to three dozen organ donation counsellors that hospitals across Mumbai have. The event was one of the first training sessions organised by Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (ROTTO) with its headquarters at KEM hospital in Mumbai as the government body starts to oversee the process of organ donation in the region.

ROTTO has written to the four Zonal Transplant Coordination Committees (ZTCC) in the state, asking them to share their organ transplant registry and details of the patients on the waiting list with them. So far two mails have been written to them by the ROTTO but the ZTCCs that have been functioning independently are reluctant to share the data.

"The setting-up of ROTTO will take close to six months. We want to standardize the organ registries across the country so that no one gets an organ out of turn and the system is fair to all," said Dr Vimal Bhandari, director, National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO), the apex body for organ donation in India. ROTTO will report to the NOTTO and hence contribute to the national registry.

At the moment each region has a different registry and there are times when despite the availability of organs, a suitable recipient is not found in the same region.

Each region in India has its own pattern of organ donation. While in Tamil Nadu the government overlooks the distribution of organs, in Maharashtra it was so far the purview of the ZTCC that functioned as NGOs - one each in Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad and Nagpur.

"We have so far sent two mails and will soon call a meeting of all the ZTCCs so that we can standardize the lists," confirmed Dr Avinash Supe, dean of KEM hospital and director of ROTTO that will oversee the organ donation in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Daman and Diu as well as Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

Proposal to involve air force in organ donation

NOTTO is working on a proposal asking for government helicopters and air force air crafts to be brought into use for transport of organs. "We will soon be able to do that with the help of the health ministry and the directorate general of health services. Poor patients will immensely benefit as they will not have to deal with the airlines at all," Dr Bhandari said.

Time is crucial in an organ donation as both lung and heart remain fit to be used only for four to six hours outside the body, making logistics crucial.