Organ Donation Awareness at VNIT Nagpur

MOHAN Foundation, Nagpur was invited by Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, South Ambazari Road, Nagpur on 10th February, 2019 to deliver a talk on organ donation.

Dr. Ravi Wankhede, Director of MOHAN Foundation spoke about organ, tissue and body donation. He remarked that man is endowed to serve mankind both while living and after death. Despite the great progress made by the country, there is a serious deficiency of blood in blood banks, not enough corneas are available in the eye banks and there is also huge requirement for life saving organs such as kidneys, liver, heart, etc. Though a few organs could be donated by living donors, what is more relevant is that several organs and tissues could be donated after brain death, said Dr. Wankhede. He explained the concept of brain death and said brain dead patients can help save lives of about 8 people besides donating tissues such as a pair of eyes and skin. He told the audience that Nagpur is fortunate to have a skin bank. He emphasized that eyes and skin can be donated after natural death as well as brain death.

The following points were explained in detail:

• Types of organ donors and who can be a donor
• Organ donation rates and organ requirement rates in India
• Myths surrounding organ donation
• Difference between natural death and brain death
• Age not being a constraint in organ donation
• Importance of donor card
• Registering at MOHAN Foundation to pledge organs
• Using the MOHAN Foundation website and helpline number

Few questions asked by the participants:

• What is the coordination process at the time of organ donation?
• What is the process of brain death declaration?
• What is the difference between organ donation and body donation?

All the questions were answered and most of the participants picked up pamphlets and consent forms which would be submitted by the office bearers to the Mohan Foundation. 5 participants signed up for donor cards out of the 40 present. At the end of the session they expressed interest in having more programmes organized by MOHAN Foundation at their institute.