MOHAN Foundation, Chennai organized an Organ Donation Awareness Programme for the traffic police in Coimbatore. It was held at the Police Commissioner’s office, Coimbatore on 07^th August, 2013.  240 traffic police, few sub-inspectors and the Inspector of Police, Coimbatore attended the session.

Mr. Ananth R, Transplant Coordinator, MOHAN Foundation, Chennai addressed the gathering and explained to them the various concepts related to deceased organ donation. Since the police are involved in conducting inquests in medico-legal cases, the following points were highlighted during the talk:

• Importance of time factor during organ donation to avoid delays
• How to prepare an inquest in case of a deceased organ donation
• Tamil Nadu Government order 86 of 2011. It is regarding the procedures and forms for post-mortem

Apart from this the following topics were also discussed:

• Blood Donation and its benefits
• Types of Organ Donation - Live and Deceased Donation 
• Donor Cards and its importance
• Two circumstances of death (cardiac death and brain death)
• Role of police personnel in organ donation procedures 
• Brain Death - how it is different from natural death and coma
• Organs that can be donated after brain death and cardiac death
• Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, the Rules related to declaration of brain death and Tamil Nadu Government orders
• Age criteria of the donor and recipient and the time frame to transplant organs
• Statistics of donors in Tamil Nadu
• Role of Transplant Coordinators in Hospitals
• Activities of MOHAN Foundation across the country to strengthen the Deceased Organ Donation programme
• Organ Donation Help line number was given to them

At the end, the question and answer session helped the trainees to clarify their doubts and better understand the concept of deceased organ donation and to gain the correct knowledge about the issue.

All the participants extended their support by signing the donor card.