World Organ Donation Day: Docs, WB govt list ways to improve drive

KOLKATA: Observing World Organ Donation Day, the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO) and the health department on Monday came up with certain steps to propel the movement in the state.

The steps include making brain death declaration mandatory, training more grief counsellors and transplant coordinators, starting an organ-sharing registry and creating a WhatsApp group of doctors and relevant officials for better coordination.

With only two deceased organ donations this year, the state’s progress has been dismal so far. “Organ donation and transplant will materialize only when organs are available. To facilitate that, we need to have more brain death declarations. We will propose making declaration of brain death mandatory in hospitals,” said Dr Pradip Mitra, director, medical education.

The proposals could go a long way in making organ donations in the state a reality. Upgrading up trauma-care facilities in government hospitals, creating a more proactive role for neurosurgeons, coming up with advertisements on organ donation were some of the suggestions made by Dr Abhijit Chowdhury, haepatology head at SSKM Hospital.

“Why can’t we hammer the public with the concept of brain death and organ donation? Like the way dengue has been widely publicized, the government can rope in celebrities to endorse organ donation advertisements that will have a great appeal,” said Chowdhury.

Chowdhury and his team had spearheaded deceased organ donation long before the ROTTO and the state’s organ donation unit came up.

State nodal officer Dr Aditi Kishor Sarkar said, “We will ask hospitals to be vigilant in the emergency department as most road accidents reach here first. And these category of patients are brain-death patients.”

But doctors felt that until trauma care was improved to show the family that the best care was given to the patient, approaching fhem for brain death and organ donation could invite trouble for doctors.

Many pointed out the lack of coordination and the absence of an organ-sharing registry as major stumbling blocks.

“We should be getting at least five organ donations a month in the state/city. Shouldn’t we have a registry of brain death for better coordination?” asked Dr Suresh Ramasubban of

Apollo

Gleneagles Hospitals.

“We will work on having more transplant coordinators trained and also on a more systematic organ allocation system, as well as better coordination,” said Dr Arpita Ray Chaudhury, joint director of ROTTO.