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A new lease on life through Cadaver donation awareness drive in Mumbai

Mumbai, 29th July 2015:  Association of Hospitals and Zonal Transplant Co-Ordination Committee collaborated for an interactive session on ‘Challenges in Cadaveric Donation’.  The informative session was held on 11th July, 2015 at Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital &Research Centre.  Global Hospital, Bombay Hospital, Hinduja Hospital, and many other reputed hospitals participated in the session. The objective of the session was to spread awareness about after death organ donation, a rising trend that has helped drastically change several lives in the recent past.

The aim of the exercise was to create awareness about cadaveric donation and procedure related to this to encourage and motivate individuals to sign up and make a difference. G D. Daver President of Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee spoke about the current status of Cadaveric Organ Transplants in the city. He explained that a cadaveric donation occurs when the family of a patient declared brain dead agrees to donate his or her organs, particularly kidneys, liver and lungs.

Dr. P M. Bhujang, President Association of Hospitals, spoke extensively on theconstraints and difficulties in cadaveric donation. “Lack of awareness, among the stakeholder like the public and health care workers, they are also coordination and the technical problems involve in it.Family physicians should be involved in the campaign as they have influence on the families.  Making the recipients of cadaveric donations as ambassadors to motivate the people is one the way to increase awareness.”

The trend of cadaver donations has seen a lot of fluctuations in Mumbai. In 2012, there were 26 cadaver donations, because the issue was highly publicized following VilasraoDeshmukh’s death due to liver failure. In 2014, the city saw 41 cadaver donations that benefited 107 people. As Dr.SugandhiIyer a Medico legal expert from Hinduja Hospital explained this rise in the trend of donation was due to the amendments made by the Maharashtra Government. MsSangitaTopiwala made a presentation about the how to increase   the donation of organs. She showed the statistics to emphasize how certain countries like Spain were far advanced in this respect.  Dr.Mathur of ZTCC summarized the proceedings and made several suggestions to meet the challenges and to improve the Cadaveric donation program.

As transplant is the only cure for patients with organ failure, health experts feel brain death should be recognized and donations should be encouraged so that . While Mumbai has been lagging behind, Chennai manages to get over 80 cadaver donations each year.