MOHAN Foundation was invited to design and conduct a half day workshop on” “Building up a robust deceased donor organ retrieval and transplant program: Scaling a new peak in organ transplant as part of KTCON 2023, the II Annual Meeting of Renal Transplant Section of the USI (Urological Society of India) in Jalandhar, Punjab.

Dr Sunil Shroff (Managing Trustee) and Ms Pallavi Kumar (Executive Director) were the main resource persons for this workshop.

Since Jalandhar has not initiated a deceased organ donation program yet, Ms Pallavi Kumar began the workshop by helping the participants understand public perception on organ donation through a video montage, post which she took a session on “Creating awareness: Changing Mindsets” showcasing the various tools and means available to create awareness amongst the masses. She stressed on the need to create public awareness before trying to make donations happen.

Dr Sunil Shroff conducted a session on the legal aspects of organ donation and transplantation. Dr Kajal Jain (Professor, Dept. of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care, PGIMER, Chandigarh) spoke on ‘Brain stem death –Identification, Certification & Maintenance’.

Ms Pallavi Kumar delivered a lecture on ‘Grief Counselling- Making the Ask for Organ Donation’ and Dr Anup Kumar (Head of Department, Urology Robotics and Renal Transplant, Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi) spoke on the role of NOTTO/ROTTO/SOTTO)

The workshop ended with a panel discussion in which the audience asked questions to the panellists on various aspects of brain death certification, formation of a brain death committee, documentation required in the process, legal requirements, protocols on sharing of organs etc.