At a recent two-day national meet on organ donation held at Tata Memorial Hospital,NGOs from across the country came together to form a national body.
Six years ago, when Tarun Gupta, 33, a budding national-level table tennis champion found out that both his kidneys had failed, he immediately registered with the Zonal Transplant Co-ordination Committee-Mumbai as he needed a kidney transplant.
The ZTCC has 800 needy patients on its list. And it took about five years for Gupta’s name to reach the top. “I have been on dialysis for the past six years. My name has been first on the list for the past year-and-a-half now, and I’m still waiting,” said Gupta.
Here’s some good news for needy patients like Gupta who have been waiting for an organ that could save their lives. At a recent two-day national meet on organ donation held at Tata Memorial Hospital, NGOs from across the country including West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala came together to form a national body — the National Deceased Donor Transplantation Network, to address the issue of organ donation.
“The subject is steeped in too many issues, and can only be dealt with if everyone comes together,” said Dr Vatsala Trivedi, chairperson of the national body.
When Dr Trivedi, general secretary of ZTCC, performed the first ever deceased donor transplant in Mumbai in March 1997, she had to convince doctors, hospital authorities and people in general that such operations were a good option.
But there is far more acceptance for the procedure now, she said. “Education has a lot to do with the change in attitude,” she said.
But despite acceptance, the figures of deceased donor transplants are dismal in India. In 2006, the number of organ (deceased donor) transplants in Mumbai was 13. And not more than 100 deceased donor transplants were done in all of India.
However, there is hope that with the formation of the national body, there will be a positive change in statistics. The Network, apart from facilitating transplants, will take its message to the people via street plays, a website and promotional literature.
“Hospital awareness and networking to allow for transplant, retrieval and storage of organs will also be an important activity of the committee,” revealed Trivedi.
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