THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a boost to organ transplantation in the state, the organs of a brain-dead patient were harvested to give life to at least three other patients. However the rare procedure kicked up a row as the recipients of the four organs were patients of the same private hospital as the donor.
In a first, a private hospital in the capital conducted five simultaneous organ-transplantation surgeries with the involvement of around 100 health workers. The procedures lasted 24 hours, ending on Thursday evening.
A 26-year-old woman and a 39-year-old man in need of two organs each were operated upon, which is considered a first in the state. The donor liver was large enough to be split into two and a 49-year-old woman in the same hospital was lucky enough to find the second half matching her blood group.
They all have the family of Anurag, from Thakkala, to thank. The 25-year-old, who was set to migrate to the UAE next week, met with a bike accident near the police station in his hometown on December 24. He was first admitted to a local hospital and later shifted to KIMSHEALTH.
The doctors there declared Anurag brain dead while undergoing treatment and his family took the decision to donate his organs. His eyes were given to Regional Institute of Ophthalmology and heart valve to Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) in the city.
The rare medical achievement was not without controversies as there were allegations that the private hospital received more organs and at least one kidney would have gone to a government transplant centre (Thiruvananthapuram Medical College). However the decision by the Kerala State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (K-SOTTO) proved to be decisive for saving the lives of two youngsters suffering from multi-organ failure.
K-SOTTO is an government body established in 2021 to bring different aspects of organ donation and organ transplant surgeries in the state under a single entity. It used the government guidelines to give priority to end-stage organ-failure patients in the private hospital over the general pool of recipients in government hospitals. As a result one patient received a liver and a kidney, and another received pancreas and kidney.
“The government made organ-donation criteria to help multi-organ-failure patients who are at increased risk. We follow the national and international guidelines in this regard. The great gesture by the donor’s family should be respected. They should not feel disheartened by unnecessary controversies,” said Dr Noble Gracious, executive director of K-SOTTO.
The state government has made major plans for encouraging organ transplantation in government medical colleges. However multi-organ transplantations are mostly done in a few private transplantation centres at present.
FACILITIES IN STATE
45 Number of licensed transplantation centres
5 Of these are in government hospitals
40 Are in the private sector