Cadaver donations in 2010 were fewer than in 2009. The Zonal Transplant and Coordination Committee recorded 20 last year whereas it was 36 in 2009.
Cadaver donations in 2010 were fewer than in 2009. The Zonal Transplant and Coordination Committee (ZTCC) recorded 20 last year whereas it was 36 in 2009.
And ZTCC officials feel the problem lies with hospitals. Doctors, said an official, fail to identify a brain dead person and help in the organ donation programme.
“Our list for organ donations has 28 hospitals. But we get only one-fourth of the expected numbers, especially cadaver donation,” Dr Gustad Daver, president of ZTCC and director (professional service), PD Hinduja Hospital, said.
“Identifying a brain dead person is very important for cadaver donations. The liver and kidneys need to be removed while a brain dead person is still on ventilator. The skin and cornea can be taken even after the person is taken off the ventilator.”
Brain dead patients are the best source for harvesting organs because these patients can offer a new lease of life to 11 critical patients who are in need of various organs.
“While public hospitals are not too interested in the organ donation programme, a few private hospitals, which were active in 2009, did not identify a single cadaver in 2010,” Dr Sujata Patwardhan, secretary of ZTCC, said. Sion Hospital, KEM Hospital and JJ Hospital are among the registered public hospitals with ZTCC.
Fortis Hospital, Mulund, and Harkisondas Hospital identified five cadavers each in the past two years. Nanavati and Jaslok identified four and six in the same period, Patwardhan said.
Daver said that most of the donors come from accident cases. “If the police and the doctors in the ICU can successfully identify a brain dead person, it will help increase the number of donations,” Daver said. According to the ZTCC report, there have been 130 cornea donations, 60 skin donations and eight liver donations in 2010.
Once cadavers are identified through cadaver donor compatibility tests, social workers play a significant role in convincing the family to go for the donation. With the family’s consent, doctors go ahead with the harvesting of organs from the patient.
These organs can be transplanted to patients registered on the ZTCC list, the doctor said. India is 17th in the list of such donations across the world. One of the biggest problems, say experts, is the lack of awareness about the entire procedure.
The US and the UK have non-heart beating organ donations that allow doctors to harvest organs even after the heart stops beating.
“In India, even after a person is brain dead, doctors have to maintain the body and keep the heart beating, which is not an easy task,” Daver said.
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