Organ transplantation is an issue that must be dealt with sensitively. Orienting society to accepting the `value of life after death' will go a long way in strengthening transplantation as medical treatment. USHA RAMAN writes.
ON January 21, 16-year-old Thyagarajan, who suffered ventricular haemorrhage, was declared brain dead at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai. But his organs live on in six men. Just the previous day, 26-year-old Manikandan's organs had saved the lives of five people. Recently, two-year-old Moses, upon his death, gave a fresh lease of life to three people.
Over the past couple of days, two cases of organ transplantation following `brain death' have been recorded. The two donors were of different ages, came from different backgrounds, were admitted in different hospitals and their organs went to different people.
The chances for kidney donors developing health problems directly due to the organ donation are minimal, doctors said today, allaying the fears of renal patients at a patient support programme of Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN).
IT IS an unpretentious building on the busy Poonamallee High Road. Climb up to the first floor and you will reach a ward with patients of various ages undergoing dialysis. They may be at death's door and completely bankrupt given the nature of the disease but, the Rekha Memorial TANKER Foundation Subsidised Dialysis unit has given them hope and a longer lease of life.
It is the fourth anniversary of the MOHAN Foundation. And it is sheer chance that Dr. Sunil Shroff happens to be talking about the efforts that went into launching the Multiple Organ Harvesting Aid Network on its anniversary. But it was certainly more than chance that the network has progressed the
Though Ms. Mymoon Beevi and Ms. Shankari had met before several times, it was different this time. The latter saw the glimmer of life her mother had left behind, crossing a major milestone.
MOHAN Foundation and the Chennai chapter of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine are jointly holding a workshop on `brain death' for doctors on June 11 at Sundaram Medical Foundation, Anna Nagar from 9 a.m. There is no registration fee, but seats are limited.
Tamil Nadu has become the first State in the country to launch a 'donor card' that allows one to donate one's organs in the event of his death, in a regional language.
ONE of the objectives of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 was to clear the decks legally for the development of a cadaver-based organ transplantation programme. Towards this end, the Act recognised and defined, for the first time in India, the concept of "brain-stem death".
