The third in a series of workshops on Deceased donor organ transplantation was held on 4th August 2012 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The workshop was jointly organized by the Department of Health, Govt. of Kerala, Department of Nephrology, Govt. Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram and MOHAN Foundation. The MOHAN Foundation team led by Dr. Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee, was invited for the workshop to share its experience and the reasons for the success of the Deceased organ donation programme in Tamil Nadu.
The workshop was inaugurated by Sri. V.S. Sivakumar, Hon’ble Minister for Health & Family Welfare. He also launched the website “Mrithasanjeevani” or Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (www.knos.org.in) which has been designed along the lines of the Tamil Nadu website (www.tnos.org). The website will be used to register all the potential organ recipients of the state and will ensure transparency in allocation of organs. Dr. Ramdas Pisharody, Principal, Trivandrum Medical College, will be the State Convenor of this programme. Dr. Sudhindran, Liver transplant surgeon, Amrita Institute of Medical Science, Kochi and Dr. Sunil Shroff also spoke on the occasion.
The workshop covered a gamut of topics under the banner of deceased donor organ transplantation.
Dr. Deiveegan, Neurosurgeon, Madras Medical College & Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), Chennai who has been actively involved in the Deceased organ donation programme in RGGGH spoke about brain death identification and certification.
Dr. Sumana Navin, Course Director, MOHAN Foundation explained the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 and the recent amendments. She added that Mandated choice could be a way for increasing awareness about organ donation. This can be done by asking people to express their wish about organ donation during the issue of important documents like ‘Driving license’ or ‘passport.’ Mr. Bino James, Project Manager, MOHAN Foundation, Bangalore mentioned the efforts taken by a local NGO (Gift Your Organ Foundation) in Karnataka to implement a pilot project to include an Organ Donor sticker on the driving license. The pilot project was implemented on 24th July 2012 in Electronic City Bangalore RTO.
Dr. Akila Rajakumar, Consultant Intensivist, Global Hospitals, spoke about the maintenance of a brain dead donor – ICU requirements for medication, fluids, monitoring and tackling hypotension, hypothermia etc. Dr. Sunil Shroff spoke about an ideal deceased organ donor and the laboratory tests that need to be done before proceeding to organ donation.
Ms. Jessi Saranya, Transplant coordinator, MOHAN Foundation , shared the MOHAN Foundation team’s experiences with counseling families in the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. She also gave an insight into the stages of grief and the counseling process.
Ms. Lalitha Raghuram, Country Director, MOHAN Foundation, speaking about the MOHAN Foundation experience in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh said that it was important for the government to create an enabling environment. Massive public and hospital education programmes are very necessary as are trained transplant coordinators.
Rajeev Sadanandan, Principal Secretary, Health & Family Welfare said that five Government Orders (GOs) covering various aspects of organ donation and transplantation had been issued. He added that Kerala was all set to implement the deceased organ donation programme and that this programme was the clear solution to organ failure.
The workshop concluded with a panel discussion. The participants raised queries about the certification of brain death, the rationale for two apnoea tests, and organ allocation criteria. They also expressed interest in the Transplant Coordinators’ training programme. The panelists - Dr. Sunil Shroff , Dr.Deiveegan and Dr.Subbarao – gave their inputs clearly and candidly. Dr. Sunil Shroff emphasized the need for active public- private partnership and Government support to ensure that the Deceased donor organ transplantation programme is successful.
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