Awareness on organ donation can help many get new life

On Organ Donation Day, medicos talk on various steps to ensure proper functioning of organ donation programme.

TRANSTAN programme is the strong alliance forged between government and private health sectors, non-governmental organisations (NGO) and the State health ministry. From political willingness to bank on the nobility of organ donation to preserve and maintain a transparent and smooth allocation in sharing organs to deserving patient; from having trained coordinators in hospitals to counsel grieving relatives on the awareness of the donation are the necessities of the system.

Tamil Nadu and other southern States have structured a machinery to run tissue and organ transplantation in fairly successful numbers in transplant programmes. Mohan foundation was responsible in launching its pilot project of organ sharing in 1999 that was adopted soon by State Government of Tamil Nadu through Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN). Only five hospitals were involved but now it increased to 55 hospitals and in the year 2012, the number of donors in India were 196, out of which fifty percent were generated from Tamil Nadu. “The Cadaver transplant programme, Regional Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organisation and State Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organisation comes under the umbrella of the newer body TRANSTAN, thereby coordinating all activities effortlessly. Now only ten States and certain union territories have generated organ donors. This trend has to change. Only in Tamil Nadu, six second tier cities such as Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchy, Vellore, Salem and Tirunelveli has been generating donors regularly,” said Dr Sandeep Attawar, Programme Director and Chair – Cardiac Science Thoracic Organ Transplant, Gleneagles Global Health City. “The connectivity by air and road is an added comfort. The awareness activities help relatives can raise queries if they can donate their deceased relative’s organs. Tamil Nadu has received the award for highest donor generation for four consecutive years since 2015. Kidney Transplant Surgeon and managing trustee of Mohan Foundation Dr Sunil Shroff said that there are more than 100 hospitals that are approved and are licensed to undertake organ transplantation.