Organ Donation

For the last few years awareness on organ donation is slowly getting momentum, and people are coming forward for donating the healthy organs of dead or brain dead relatives. It is really surprising that both Central and State Govts  are not keeping pace with this awareness and are still not coming with desired guidelines for the same. In this case the time factor is very important, if a person dies then within a stipulated time the organs have to be removed from body, but there is too much red tape in the medical body that the relatives in the end lose the interest. In a recent case a 71 year old person died in the hospital and the family waited for almost a day for permission to donate his organ but in vain.  Recently relatives of a young brain dead patient agreed for retrieval of his vital  and tissues, the hospital wrote to the authorities for seeking permission, but the state director of health services rejected the permission pointing out that the hospital licence for conducting organ transplant is suspended after the alleged kidney racket scam. The relatives of patient approached Bombay High Court, while HC was hearing the petition the patient died, and court commented if the organs of the brain dead patient would have been retrieved up till now the lives of at least 5 patients who were waiting on donee list for organ transplant could have been saved.

The law clearly states that any hospital with an ICU facility can become Non Transplant Organ Retrieval Centre ,even if hospital does not have transplant facility. So in the above mentioned case director of medical services erred, the right action would have been that he should have directed the team from other hospital to retrieve the organs. In my opinion there should be nation wide campaign on very large scale educating people on the organ donation and all the major hospital in all the cities should be equipped for organ retrieval, and without any delay the organ should be made available to the donee on the waiting list. All the hospitals through out country should be linked and there should be stringent laws governing the organ transplant field. Recently we have seen that in cities where the organs are being transported the traffic police creates a green corridor so that clear road is available to ambulance/vehicle carrying organ, which is an excellent practice otherwise we see only clear road only at the time of VIP movement.

Even if the donee gets the matching organ from dead or brain dead person, then comes the finances required for carrying out the transplant operation in the designated hospitals. The cost of operation and post surgery medicines can be mind boggling. I am giving below some facts:

1. Recently  liver was transplanted  into 7 year old boy, where his mother donated part of her liver. The cost of transplant was around Rs 12 lakhs. This was done in a private hospital in Navi Mumbai and the hospital claim that this was done at almost half the cost in most  other pvt hospitals in Mumbai.
2. In the same Navi Mumbai hospital the cost for adult liver transplant would be around 18 lakhs, you can imagine the cost in other hospitals. A liver transplant in govt hospitals in Mumbai would cost Rs 6 lakhs
3. Kidney transplant in most of the private hospitals in Mumbai will cost around 6 to 8 lakhs, in Maharashtra under the govt scheme the cap on the cost of Kidney transplant Rs 3 lakhs and another Rs 90,000  immuno suppresive drugs after the surgery.
4. Tamilnadu is a state which runs the most successful program in the country offering free kidney,  liver and heart transplants in Govt hospitals.
5. Goa is another state where transplant are financed by govt. Kerala govt also provided assistance to poor people. Andhra and Karnataka govts also provide some assistance to poor patients

So it is  apparent that there is so much still be done in this field. The govt should take initiative in this area and enact clear guidelines and law. Secondly in all the hospitals whether govt or private facility should be there to retrieve the organs from dead or brain dead persons. Govt also should come out for providing financial aids for the patient requiring transplants, as all the affected persons can not afford cost of transplant operations which runs in lakhs of rupees. NGOs , Charitable trusts and Business houses should also come forward in providing assistance to needy people.

So in the end, what you say my friends.

Awaiting for your feed backs and comments.