After an organ is harvested from a donor, it is kept in preservative solution which freezes cellular and enzyme activity. The organ, along with the solution, is kept in a box filled with ice and transported at the earliest.
Since donors and recipients should have a compatible blood group, officials go through recipients in the waiting list and inform those who are compatible. At times, if a suitable recipient is not available in a State, then officials from organ donation programme of the respective State contact their counterparts in Jeevandan to enquire if a compatible recipient is available here. Upon finding one, organs are transported. If organs have to be brought from other States, chartered flights are used as relying on commercial flight timings leads to wastage of Cold Ischemia Time. After organ is flown down to an airport, police establishes a Green Channel to transport it at the earliest to the hospital where recipient is waiting.
Apart from the seamless transportation, clear communication between the transplantation specialists team with donors and recipients helps cut down the ischemia time. Professor and head of Surgical Gastroenterology department and Liver Transplantation Unit, Osmania General Hospital, Dr CH Madhusudhan termed this step as crucial to avoid organ wastage. If a team starts operating on recipient after receiving the organ, there might be adverse outcomes.
If transplantation cannot proceed on a patient after starting surgery, or if a recipient dies, another recipient is kept ready to avoid wastage of organ. Specialists said that this is a standard practice.
