State honours spark cadaver organ donations, highest in 7 years

CHENNAI: After witnessing a steady dip which was worsened by the pandemic, the number of cadaver organ donations in the State recorded a substantial jump last year. Incidentally, one-third of them came after the government announced State honours for the deceased if the kin came forward to donate organs.

As per the numbers with the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (Transtan), there were 178 cadaver organ donations in 2023 which led to 1,000 transplants – both of which are second only to the all-time high figures recorded seven years ago.

Since touching the high of 185 donations and 1,018 transplants in 2016, the numbers began falling, the lowest in 2020, during the pandemic, when the numbers were only 55 and 368, respectively. Several campaigns and awareness programmes helped bring it up to 156 and 878, respectively in 2022.

A game-changer was Chief Minister MK Stalin’s announcement on September 23 that State honours would be given to the funeral if the kin agreed to join the cadaver organ donation drive. Since then, the authority has recorded 60 donations, besides four in the first week of January.

Speaking to DT Next, Dr N Gopalakrishnan, member-secretary, Transtan, said the decision to accord State honours played a major role in increasing the number of donations. “In 2024, we hope to see an all-time high performance in organ donations in the State,” he added.

This apart, the Transtan portal has also seen a manifold increase in the number of pledges to 3,841, said officials.

The 1,000 transplants done last year included 658 major organs: 313 kidney transplants, 155 liver, 110 lung and 70 heart. Also, 342 minor organs were transplanted, including 224 corneas, 57 bones and 38 heart valves.

Since the programme commenced in 2008, there have been 1,787 cadaver organ donations and 10,620 organ transplants till 2023.