Ms. Pallavi Kumar

Introduction

In a country where the rate of organ donation is 0.16 per million populations, one of the lowest in the world, the Army Hospital in Delhi is showing the way in NCR. Since the constitution of the Armed Forces Organ Retrieval and Transplantation Authority (AORTA) in Army R & R Hospital, New Delhi in 2007; it has achieved 113 brain death declarations of which about 45 have translated into successful multi organ donations. This is commendable record achieved by a single government institution in the country. Slowly and steadily government and private hospitals in Delhi are following suit with their deceased organ donation and transplantation programmes.

The approximate donation figures of some of the hospitals in Delhi–NCR till date are:

Government’s Initiative

The Union Health Ministry is setting up a central coordinating agency on organ transplants that would maintain the database of organ donors and recipients apart from training doctors on transplant procedures. The agency, National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) based at Safdarjung Hospital would give funds to private and public hospitals to appoint a coordinator for organ transplants and also distribute free software to regional centres for uploading transplant-related data.

Role of NGOs

MOHAN Foundation opened its Delhi-NCR office in March 2011 to promote deceased organ donations in the region. The office followed a three pronged approach as being done in Chennai, Tamil Nadu namely:

• Public Education Programmes: The Foundation created and distributed several audio, video, and print related public education material to suit the needs of people from a wide cross section of society; speaking different languages and from varied cultures. The Foundation through its various activities – talks, presentations, marathon and kiosks has managed to get across the message about organ donation to over 5000 people. More than 2000 people have pledged their organs through the donor card.

•  Hospital Development: The Foundation has facilitated the retrieval and transplantation of 31 organs from 12 deceased donors in various hospitals in Delhi- NCR.

• Training of transplant coordinators: The Foundation in partnership with Army Hospital R & R and under the aegis of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has trained 40 Transplant Coordinators in Delhi-NCR in April 2012. Another refresher workshop was held for senior Transplant Coordinators and that reached out to 60 coordinators.

• Events: The Foundation has conducted 2 large scale events to increase awareness on organ donation. One event saw the coming together of senior medical professionals from various hospitals across Delhi-NCR to sing for the cause of Organ Donation. Sheila Dixit, Chief Minister, Delhi-NCR graced the occasion and signed up the donor card. Also present at the event was Anand Gandhi, the Director of the film Ship of Theseus – the first mainstream Bollywood film featuring the issue of organ donation.

The second event was a musical evening by the popular band, Indian Ocean which had an audience of close to 500 people. At the event, the members of the band signed up for organ donation.

Liaising with the Government: The Foundation’s ongoing efforts have been to liaison with the government at the Centre to pass favourable legislations to bring about necessary changes to the existing Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.