On August 11, 2019, Ms. Pallavi Kumar Executive Director, Delhi-NCR was invited as a panelist in the panel discussion on “Organ donation in India - what is missing?” organised by the Liver Transplantation Society of India (LTSI Mid Term Meeting 2019) held at Hotel Crowne Plaza Gurugram, Haryana. Dr. Vijay Vohra Chairman-Liver Transplant, GI Anaesthesia & Critical Care moderated the discussion. Some of the issues discussed were:
- Organ donation worldwide much better than India.
- Organ donation in India some states better than the others.
- Myths in organ donation – Do they impact donation?
- Hurdles in organ donation.
- Identifying the potential donor.
- Determining brain death – is that a hurdle.
- Approaching the family for donation.
- Authorization from the family for donation.
- Initiatives to improve donation – Government, NOTTO, NGOs & Hospitals.
- Revision of Transplantation of Human Organs Act 2011 – Will it benefit the donation program anyway.
- Declared brain dead for organ donation and later consent withdrawn – Can life support be withdrawn, what will be the time of that.
- Declared brain dead in one institution, does the process need to be repeated if transferred to another hospital.
- Donation after cardiac death – Is that the answer for improving organ availability?
The other panellists were Dr. Shweta Singh (Max Hospital, Saket), Dr. Akila Rajakumar (Global Hospital, Chennai), Dr. Anindita Mukherjee (Bangalore) and Dr. Sharmila Ranade (KDA Hospital, Mumbai).
