On August 12th, 2019 MOHAN Foundation was invited by Mrs. Kamala Muthu Palaniappan, Chairman of Inner Wheel Club of Madras to interact with the club members about organ donation. Dr. Hemal Kanvinde, Quality Assurance Officer of the Foundation, accompanied by Ms. Susmitha Gurung and Ms. Angeline Racheal - Interns from MMM College of Health Sciences were at venue.

The programme began around 3:30 pm and twelve members of Inner Wheel Club were present during the interaction. Before the session kicked off, the members of the Inner Wheel Club had a short discussion on organ donation. Following this, Dr. Hemal Kanvinde began her talk with an introduction about MOHAN Foundation and then explained about organ and tissue donation. 

The entire session was highly interactive with the club members posing a lot of questions to Dr. Hemal. The following are a few the topics that were discussed in the session:

• Who can donate the organs?
• When can organs be donated?
• What is living donation?
• What is natural death and brain death?
• What is brain death and coma?
• What is the age limit to donate the organs?
• What is the time limit for organ retrieval?
• How to register as an organ donor?
• What are the myths and facts on organ donation?
• Transplantation of Human Organs Act - the law, malpractices, offences and penalties

The audience participated actively and came up with lot of questions. Few questions asked by the audience:

• How to register for organ transplantation in the government’s waitlist?
• Is MOHAN Foundation involved in retrieval of organs?
• What is the difference between brain death and coma?
• How is living donation done?
• Can organs be donated only by healthy individuals?
• Does the age of a donor or recipient matter in organ donation and transplantation?
• Is it possible to donate the kidneys following normal death?
• How is the waiting list updated and maintained?
• How is the allocation of organs done?
• How soon should retrieved organs be transplanted to a recipient?
• Is the approval of family important at the time of donation?
• Who are the decision makers during organ donation?
• Does the body get disfigured after organ donation?
• What is bone grafting?
• Can the organs of people who drowned be donated?
• What is cadaver donation and how it is done?
• Can people with diabetes and hypertension donate organs?
• Can people with autoimmune disease and thyroid donate their organs?

Dr. Hemal responded to all questions raised. The discussion lasted for more than an hour and eleven members signed up for organ donation and registered themselves as organ donors. MOHAN Foundation is thankful to Inner Wheel Club for the opportunity to take the cause to its members.