The Society of Organ Transplantation (SOT), Bangladesh invited Dr. Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee and Dr. Sumana Navin, Course Director, MOHAN Foundation to speak at the 3rd National Convention & Scientific Seminar on Organ Transplantation on 6th and 7th May 2017 at Dhaka. The invitation came from Prof. Harun Ur Rashid, President, SOT. The meeting was organised in cooperation with the International Society of Nephrology at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. The international faculty also included Prof. K. L. Gupta and Prof. Georgi Abraham from India, and Dr. Cheol Woong Jung from South Korea. About 300 delegates attended the seminar.
In addition to the plenary sessions, a parallel session - ‘Transplant Coordinators Meeting’, was held. There were 30 participants for this meeting comprising ICU doctors, nephrologists, ICU nurses and staff from nephrology & dialysis units. Prof. Muhammad Rafiqul Alam introduced the speakers – Dr. Sunil Shroff and Dr. Sumana Navin. Dr. Shroff explained the concept of organ and tissue donation with the help of an animation video. He encouraged everyone to start doing more eye donations since this was already taking place in Bangladesh. This could pave the way for organ donations. Dr. Sumana Navin spoke about the role of an ICU nurse and transplant coordinator in supporting the family who had a relative in the ICU. She said that good end-of-life care included offering the option of organ donation because the family could find solace in this noble deed. There were questions regarding the reluctance of ICU doctors in declaring brain death, coverage of donor management and retrieval costs in non-transplant centres and organ sharing registry. The Indian experience in these areas was shared.
One of the plenary sessions was on the different aspects of deceased organ donation. Bangladesh passed the Transplantation of Human Organ act in 1999, but is yet to start deceased organ donation and transplantation. One of the Intensive Care doctors mentioned that in a study that was conducted in a hospital, it was found that almost 24% of those admitted/families were supportive of organ donation. This throws up the possibility of a good organ donation conversion rate, if the family is asked.
In the final plenary session Dr. Sumana Navin spoke on the ‘Role of a transplant coordinator in deceased organ donation.’ She emphasised the importance of capacity building and outlined the structure of MOHAN Foundation’s transplant coordinators’ training programme and impact of the work of trained transplant coordinators. Dr. Sunil Shroff gave a detailed presentation on ‘A map for deceased organ donation in Bangladesh’ and offered all support to kick-start the programme. Dr. Kamrul Islam ended the session with a comprehensive overview of ‘Evaluation of deceased donor transplant.’
The 3rd National Convention & Scientific Seminar concluded with an address by the Chief Guest, Mr. Mohammad Nasim, M.P, Health Minister, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
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