Multi-organ transplant activity from brain dead donors- Act of Generosity
Mahesh Dhoundiyal
New Delhi :- It is with the help of Medical Superintendent of Safdarjung Hospital, Dr. Vandana Talwar and cordination of deceased donor Vijay and his family generously gave a new lease of life to four patients. The family hails from Ballabgarh district ,Haryana. He was unwell for a week and was on private treatment for a while. He had acute febrile illness and was hospitalized in Safdarjung Hospital on 25th Feb 24 in critical condition. On the evening of 2nd March, 2024, after a series of tests, a panel of specialists certified him brain dead. The parents of the deceased donor Vijay agreed for this act generosity and decided to donate four vital organs to the hospital for waitlisted needy patients. The organ retrieval was successfully carried out in Safdarjung Hospital by the Organ Donation and Transplant Coordination Committee. The retrieved organs were allotted across the city in coordination with NOTTO. The heart of the deceased donor was transplanted in a patient at AIIMS, New Delhi , the liver and one kidney were transplanted in R & R Army hospital and one kidney was transplanted in Safdarjung Hospital by the respective teams of Nephrology and Urology . The recipient of the kidney at Safdarjung Hospital is stable and recovering well. This selfless act on the part of the kin of the donor will go a long way to spread awareness in the masses regarding Organ Donation.
The current cadaveric organ donation and the previous cadaveric organ donation in Safdarjung Hospital in the month of Jan2024 are a result of the revival of ongoing programme for increasing awareness in the the faculty and residents towards Brain stem death declaration and Deceased Organ Donation. The Medical Superintendent also informed that in Safdarjung Hospital, the Organ Donation and Transplant Coordination Committee ,under the charge of Dr. Vandana Chakravarty, Additional MS and the officer in charge Dr. Binita Jaiswal has been actively holding sensitization and training sessions to increase awareness towards potential brain stem death declaration and organ donation.
The Organ donation involves healthy organs and tissues from one person to be transplanted into another The organs can only be donated either after the natural death of a person or if the person is declared brain dead, which was legalised in India under the ‘Transplantation of Human Organ (THO) Act’ in 1994. Since then it has been made possible to undertake multi-organ transplant activity from brain dead donors.
