Cadaveric organ donation in casualty

Even as Odisha takes pride in performing highest renal transplants in a Government set up in eastern India, slow progress in facilitating cadaveric organ donation and lack of facilities to test harvested organs have left the health experts worried.

BHUBANESWAR: Even as Odisha takes pride in performing highest renal transplants in a Government set up in eastern India, slow progress in facilitating cadaveric organ donation and lack of facilities to test harvested organs have left the health experts worried.


Sources said renal transplantation was first started in SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH) at Cuttack in 2012 following a High Court directive to the State Government in August, 2010 to start organ transplantation surgery in Government medical colleges at Cuttack, Berhampur and Burla.


While SCBMCH still lacks organ compatibility test facilities, organ transplantation surgery at MKCG Medical College and Hospital at Berhampur and VIMSAR at Burla is yet to start despite the HC directive.  
The hospital authorities are forced to outsource necessary tests as there is no test facility at SCBMCH to ascertain compatibility between the donor and recipient. It is not only expensive but also delays transplantation by more than a week, putting the recipient’s life at risk.


The State urgently needs Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) test facility because cadaveric transplantation is not possible due to non-availability of testing facilities since the harvested kidney from the deceased can be preserved for only 24-30 hours and not a week.


The State Government is also yet to frame necessary rules to facilitate cadaveric organ donations. General secretary of National Deceased Donor Transplantation Network Trailokya Nath Panda said more than three years after the Assembly amended the Orissa Anatomy Act 1975, necessary rules have not been notified.


‘’The Act was amended in May, 2013. But it is not useful unless rules are framed to facilitate body donation to medical colleges and hospitals. Besides, the Government will have to form committees for declaring patients as brain dead in hospitals and develop facilities to preserve donated organs,’’ Panda pointed out.   


The HC had also directed the State Government to frame a scheme similar to Jeevan Daan in Andhra Pradesh for organ transplantation and appoint different authorities to implement it. However, this has not been followed, Panda said.    


A health official, however, claimed that while the advisory committee for deceased organ donation has been formed, actions are being initiated to meet other requirements to start cadaveric transplantation.


“The Directorate of Medical Education and Training has sought applications from firms which have required expertise and experience of preparing and managing a network for organ sharing under Transplantation of Human Organs Act,” he added.

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