Times of India
05 July 2010
By Pushpa Narayan
Chennai, India

Agency Has Boosted Organ Donation In TN In Last 2 Yrs
When the doctors at KG Hospital in Coimbatore declared a 38–year–old road traffic victim brain dead on Saturday, the state cadaver transplant registry in the state recorded the 100th cadaver organ donation since its inception in October 2008. In the last two years, the registry has networked with over 500 hospitals in the city besides hospitals transplant centres across the country.

After the brain death of the patient on Saturday, the heart was allotted to Frontier Lifeline and the liver to Sri Ramachandra University. The kidneys were retained by KG Hospital. The harvest is expected to begin in the wee hours of Sunday. Almost simultaneously, the Government General Hospital also recorded a brain death and the registry was networking with other hospitals to find suitable recipients.

“In the past two years, we have seen moving stories of voluntary donations. In fact, the registry is still in the infancy stage. To encourage more and more people we have been relaxing rules for donations. The government has now ordered that no postmortem examination is required for brain dead patients who were injured in road accidents. It has also been decided to give priority to blood relatives of donors as recipients,”said Dr J Amalorpavanathan, co–ordinator, state organ registry.

Though the registry hardly has manpower or infrastructure, it has been working with multiple departments including the traffic police and airport security. “In many instances, the police had kept a green corridor open to ensure that the vehicles carrying the harvested organs reach the transplant centres fast,”said Dr Amalorpavanathan.

Meanwhile, an online–survey by MOHAN Foundation, a not–for–profit organisation, released on Friday showed that 89% of people were willing to donate their organs after death. The online survey had over 2,200 participants in the age group of 20–40 years, with a male–to–female ratio of 60:40. The survey also revealed that 67% of the respondents had heard or had some knowledge of brain death.

“Though these are encouraging, only 29% knew about a donor card. A donor card is something like a credit card that you can carry in your wallet expressing your desire to donate your organs. It is a symbolic reminder of one’s commitment to donate their organs,”said MOHAN Foundation trustee Sunil Shroff.

Gifting Life

• The government has now ordered that no post–mortem examination is required for brain dead patients who were injured in road accidents
• It has also been decided to give priority to blood relatives of donors as recipients
• An online–survey by MOHAN Foundation showed that 89% of people were willing to donate their organs after death