On 8th April 2022, an online seminar was organized for students of the social work department, Mother Teresa’s Women University, Kodaikanal. About 35 students from Master of Social Work have attended  the session. Dr. Hemal Kanvinde, Quality Assurance Officer, Ms. Preetha Baskar, Project Executive and Mr. Ganesh, Marketing Coordinator of MOHAN Foundation contributed to the webinar.  

 

Ms. Preetha Baskar commenced the first session. She started off by explaining the concept, types of organ donor, legal aspect, statistics, myths, facts and process for pledging organs and the importance of carrying a donor card. 

Question and answer session started after the first session. The following questions were raised by the students. All the raised questions were answered.

1. How long will it take to retrieve eyes from a deceased person?
2.  Can a person with diabetes or hypertension donate their organs?
3. Is there any ethical process to convince the family members of the potential donor?

This was followed by a video explaining brain stem death. It was screened to show how brain death certification happens.

Dr. Hemal Kanvinde began the next session on importance of counselling of organ failure patients. A motivating story of a kidney transplant recipient was narrated to explain the points. She explained the role of medical social workers as transplant coordinator and how much impact counseling will create in the minds of the patients.

The last session was by Mr. Ganesh, Marketing coordinator. He gave a brief explanation about the courses offered in MOHAN Foundation.  He spoke of Transplant Coordinator as a career.   Finally, an inspiring video of a heart transplant recipient was played. It showed how a person’s selfless decision has changed someone's ending. 

Whole hearted thanks to Dr. Vaidehi Vijayakumar, Vice Chancellor, Dr D Ramani, Registrar for granting permission to conduct the session.  A special thanks to Dr. Hilda Devi for her coordination and support.