Dr. Manjula Balasubramanian, Chief Clinical Pathologist, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia visited MOHAN Foundation, Chennai on 30th August 2011. This centre is the largest kidney centre in the Philadelphia area. Dr. Manjula spoke about the deceased organ donation programme in U.S. and the role of UNOS. There are 72,383 patients on the active waiting list at present. And there were only 5669 transplants done from January to May 2011.
She emphasized the role of a transplant pathologist in the organ donation and transplantation process. Unlike in India, HLA matching is done prior to a heart transplant. In liver transplants, only ABO match was being done, now HLA matching is also being considered. Post-transplant, regular biopsies are done to check out the graft functional status. She mentioned that graft survival from deceased donors is about 10 years. Transplantation from deceased and non-heart beating organ donors is more common than live related and unrelated transplantation.
In the U.S. an organ is allocated based on the HLA typing of the recipient. HLA typing for the recipient is done once in three months and updated because the patient could become sensitized because of a blood transfusion, pregnancy or previous transplant. Dr. Manjula stressed that selecting the right recipient and post transplant care is very important because life is precious. They too face barriers in coordinating organ donation, but the motivation of the UNOS coordinators, doctors and supporters keeps the programme moving in the right direction.
The MOHAN Foundation team and transplant coordinators from other hospitals got an opportunity to see Dr. Manjula Balasubramanian’s U.S. driving license, which had ORGAN DONOR printed on it. MOHAN Foundation has been spearheading a campaign for a similar clause on the Indian driving license. Dr. Manjula congratulated MOHAN Foundation on the exemplary work that it was doing. The presentation concluded with an interactive session where Dr. Manjula answered all the queries raised by the audience.
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