MOHAN Foundation was invited to conduct a talk on organ donation for the students of classes 8-10, at Modern Public School, Shalimar Bagh, Delhi on October 15, 2016. Ms. Sapna, School Coordinator took the initiative to organize and coordinate the session. Ms. Mareena Thomas, Program Officer, MOHAN Foundation conducted the session and Ms. Jyoti Sharma, Transplant Coordinator, MOHAN Foundation, accompanied her.
Mareena began the session by asking the participants if anyone of them had heard about organ donation or brain death. Few students raised their hands in acknowledgement. She further enquired whether there were any similarities between brain death and coma and then proceeded to explain the concept of brain death with the help of a 5-minute video.
She informed them that only in the case of brain death is organ donation possible and elaborated on the subject by explaining to them as to how a person is declared brain dead in a hospital by a team of four doctors who have nothing to do with transplantation and are not involved in any way in allocation of organs. In addition to carrying out tests to declare a person brain dead, the certifying doctors have to sign a document that comes under the scrutiny of the government. Thus, in no way, a person can be declared brain dead if he is not.
She also added that having a donor card is not important for the donation of organs, but what is important is the will and consent of the family and that after death it is the family that has to give consent for organ donation.
Students posed many queries and asked specifically as to who can donate to whom especially in living donation. Mareena then explained about the Transplantation of Human Organs Act that explains the types of donations and who can donate to whom. She also spoke about the myths around organ donation and their corresponding reality check.
A total of 480 students attended the session and 50 donor cards were given to the school coordinator to be given to students or teachers at a later date once they have discussed the decision to pledge their organs with their families.
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