VISAKHAPATNAM: As many as 1.42 lakh potential donors have pledged their organs in Andhra Pradesh, including 1.3 lakh online and 12,300 offline pledges. But it does not have any legal standing until the family members (legal heirs) inform and give their consent to the health department for organ/tissue donation in case of an untimely death.
The state health department could retrieve organs from only 188 deceased donors in the last seven years. The last donation was done in a private hospital in Visakhapatnam on May 27.
All these point to the need of promoting cadaver or deceased organ donation rather than relying on living donors. As a very small fraction of pledges may translate into organ donation, that too with the consent from the family members, more people need to pledge their organs and come forward to donate organs of their immediate family members, in case of an unfortunate event, to give someone a second chance to live.
Brain stem death is recognised as a legal death in India under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act.
After a natural cardiac death, only a few organs/tissues like cornea, bone, skin, and blood vessels can be donated. But in case of a brain stem death, almost 8-9 organs, including vital organs such as kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas, lungs, small intestine and many types of tissues like cornea, skin, heart valves, bones, etc, can be donated.
Speaking to TOI, state coordinator and member convener of Jeevandan-Andhra Pradesh, Dr K Rambabu, said that a mere pledge does not offer any legal rights to Jeevandan to retrieve organs from the deceased persons, who pledged their organs. “Family members’ consent is mandatory. In cases of unmarried youth, it should be obtained from his/her parents. Similarly, a wife’s approval is needed for the donation of the husband’s organs and vice versa. In case of a brain-dead person, who did not pledge his/her organs, the family will be presented with the option of organ donation,” said Dr Rambabu.
The member convenor of Jeevandan added that there is a huge shortage of organs available for carrying out transplants as compared to the number of patients who require transplants.
“Deceased donor organ transplant can be done from ‘brain stem dead’ persons as well as donation after ‘cardiac death’. Thousands of people are dying in road accidents and other mishaps. And a large number of these cases could be harvested for organs. We are planning a series of awareness programmes on cadaver organ donation,” said the director of Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences.
When it comes to the living donations, Jeevandan has constituted zonal committees to give approvals for such donations. For instance, the three north coastal Andhra Pradesh districts and East Godavari come under the purview of East Zone for the purpose of getting clearances for living donation.
