TRANSPLANT COORDINATORS ALUMNI MEETING

Counselling with Mrs.Chandni Srinivasan

Deceased organ donors – case studies

The transplant coordinators of MOHAN Foundation shared their experience in coordinating the deceased organ donor program. Ms.Veena & Mr.Mukesh who coordinated multi organ donation program at Govt. General Hospital, shared their experience in counseling the families and the barriers faced by them in each multi organ donation process.

Mrs.Chandni discussed about the stages of grief and how families were able to take a decision even when they were in grief. Only at the stage of acceptance the families were able to understand the concept of brain death when it was explained, and said yes for organ donation, thus they have passed their loved one’s life to others.

 Ms.Vriti and Ms.Sujatha came up with a question, “A person has been declared brain dead and the family has given consent for organ donation, but the blood test results showed that the patient was HIV positive – then how does one deal with the situation? Is it better to explain to the near relatives at that point or after two to three days of the funeral?

The transplant coordinators also discussed about how some people say no for organ donation based on their religious belief; that if they donate any organs their soul would not reach God. How to handle people with such thoughts, how to make them understand the organ donation concept through counseling, were issues that were discussed at the meeting.