Potential of the India Cadaver donation Programme

Spain has the highest number of organ donation rate from brain dead patients in the world at 33 per million population ( Spain has a population of 40 million and has on an average 1340 Brain donors every year  33x 40 =1340). This has been possible due to the co-ordination network between 139 hospitals.  In India our current organ donation rate is 0.05 per million ( about 50 Cadaver donors per year ). However if we can improve it even to 1 per million donation - we could take care of some of the organ shortages in India and this is how the arithmetic's would work:

• At 1 per million donation rate we would have 1100 organ donors -or 2200 kidneys, 1000 hearts, 1100 Livers, 1100 pancreas and 2200 Eyes.  This should take care of almost all current demands for organs in India.

• At 2 per million donation rate there would be 2200 organ donors and the above figures would doubl There would be no necessity to undertake living kidney donations.

• If we did 3 per million , we could take care of all SAARC countries demand for organs.

• At 5 per million we would have 10,000 kidneys, 5000 hearts and 5000 livers  and we could start looking at the problem of organ shortage in rest of Asia and other parts of the world.

The cadaver programme needs to be given a priority and efforts should be made to encourage hospitals and state governments to promote the programme.  We in India at present may not be able to compare our economic progress with some of the western counter parts, but countries in second league like Poland and Hungary are today able to do an Organ donation rate of 6 per million.  Even the conservative society of Turkey does 1.5 per million. 

"To Remember Me"

Robert N West left a legacy in 1976 when the concept of organ donation was just catching on.  His legacy carries the whole essence of organ donation. It is entitled as "To Remember Me" and it reads as follows:

At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped

When that happens don't call this my "DEATHBED", call it my "BED OF LIFE" and let my body be used by others to lead fuller lives

Give my eyes to a man who has never seen a sunrise,

a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman

Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing

but endless days of pain

Give my blood to the teenager who has been pulled from the wreckage of his car,

 so that he might live to see his grandchildren play

Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week

Take my bones, every muscle, every fibre and every nerve

from my body to find a way to make a crippled child walk

Explore every corner of my brain, take my cells and let them grow

so that someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat

and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window

Burn what is left of me

and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow

If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses

and all my prejudice against my fellowmen

 

Give my sins to the devil and give my soul to God,

If you do what I have asked,

I  WILL LIVE ............FOREVER

To help the cause of organ donation a NGO called MOHAN (Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network) FOUNDATION was formed in 1997. The focus of the foundation is aimed at working as a "Support Group for Patients, Physician & Public". It distributes Organ Donor Cards and also facilitates the process of donation between various hopitals to ensure that the organs when available are not wasted.  Its website www.mohanfoundation.org has many interesting online features including a downloadable donor card, organ donation slogans, posters and you could also participate in an online survey on organ donation.    

In Conclusion

Transplants surgery is indeed cutting edge surgery and the capability of successfully doing multi  organ transplant surgery will not only help with important research developments but also standardize our hospitals practices; besides improving the image of our healthcare overseas.  Transplants surgery is the platform that can take our healthcare to a higher level of capability.  India is today on the threshold of taking a jump from being a ' developing ' nation towards a 'developed ' nation.  This is the dream of many proud Indians including our past President APJ Kalam and cadaver organ donation and transplant is part of this larger picture.

The success of organ donation programme reflects a society's triumph and its attitude towards fellow human beings. It is an act of giving, recycling and rebirth. This is the law of our universe, atoms are never destroyed - whatever perishes is borne again in some form. Death is not the end it is a new beginning. We need to understand and accept this philosophy. Walter Scott the famous novelist said - 'Death is not the last sleep. It is the final awakening.'