While TN makes steady progress in organ donation, regional network yet to be strengthened

Chennai: “Please don’t take your organs to heaven. Heaven knows that we need them here on earth,” – This popular sticker that can be seen pasted on several walls of government hospitals in the state have inspired several people to come forward and donate organs and has successfully put Tamil Nadu on the organ donation map.
However, with an effort to stay ahead of the game, those involved in the Tamil Nadu Cadaver Transplant Program are already in the process of strengthening the existing programme and also leading neighbouring states that are a part of the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO) network to improve their organ donation rates.
“2015 has been a rewarding for the state in terms of organ donation with hospitals performing several vital organ transplants. It has been exciting for us as we have achieved quite a few milestones like facilitating several inter-state transplants and also bagging the central government award for leading the country in organ donation,” said convener of the programme Dr J Amalorpavanathan. Since its inception in 2008, the organ donation registry has had 15 hearts, eight lungs, three livers, two kidneys and four heart valves that were brought from neighbouring states, with most of the inter-state transplants being done in the past two years. Though TN is progressing steadfastly in organ donation, the regional and national network of organ sharing is yet to be strengthened, says the expert.
As part of the ROTTO, Tamil Nadu is the leader for neighbouring states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep. “While there is seamless sharing of organs between our state and the neighbouring states, there is no activity of sharing organs among themselves,” pointed out Dr Amal. This is simply because the organ transplant programme in these states is still in the nascent stage and only after that is strengthened can they be ready to share organs among each other, he added.
A smooth transportation of organs from one state to another is not always as easy task as there are several complexities involved in the process, says Dr Sunil B Shroff, founder of MOHAN Foundation. “Take the case of bringing a heart from a neighbouring state – while the lack of centers to do heart transplants remains the main issue, the logistic problems like the availability of an aircraft also is an obstacle. Chartering flights to airlift organs is an expensive procedure and not everyone can afford it,” said the doctor.
But he was quick to point out that Tamil Nadu has the most high impact yet low cost model in organ donation which other states should take a leaf out of and easily emulate. “While TN does triple the amount of transplants compared to the neighbouring states, our focus should be on the step ahead. It should be about changing an individual programme into a process driven programme where organ donation becomes an everyday thing,” said Dr Shroff.