On September 27, 2019, MOHAN Foundation was invited to conduct an awareness session on organ donation at Artemis Hospital, Gurugram. It was organized by nursing education department for both existing and newly recruited nurses.  

MF representative introduced herself, the foundation and its role in creating awareness on organ donation. She began the session by showing some figures that clearly reflected the huge gap between demand and supply of organs. She also explained the reasons as to why some European countries had better organ donation rate as compared to India. Lack of awareness, religious barriers and various myths related to organ donation are the main reasons that India is lagging behind in organ donation despite being one of the most populated countries of the world. Opt in and Opt out, different consent system for organ donation followed in the world was explained in detail.

MF representative asked the group, is a brain-dead person alive and many participants raised their hands. To the question, is a brain-dead person dead, hardly 2-3 people raised their hands. A short film on brain death was then shown to the group. After the movie, the same question was posed to the group and all the participants raised their hand and confirmed that a brain-dead person is dead. The movie also clearly depicted the difference between coma and brain death.

At the end of the session MF representative explained how one could pledge to be an organ donor. The importance of bringing the family in consensus with one’s wish to sign a donor card was stressed upon as the family’s decision is considered final in India.

Close to 87 nurses attended the session.