FAQs and Facts about Organ Donation

11. After brain death has been declared and the family decides to donate the organs, who bears the subsequent costs of maintaining the donor until organ removal?

Certain hospitals would bear the cost. Apparently some of the hospital pass the charges on to the recipients.

12. Can MOHAN foundation help in some way to meet the costs of transplants?

There are a few charitable and government funds available for patients needing transplants. The Foundation, through its Patient Support Group can help in guiding the patients to these institutions and help them in applying for these funds.

13. Does organ donation leave the body disfigured ?

No. The recovery of organs is carried out by well-trained surgeons with the greatest care and does not disfigure the body or change the way it looks.

14. Are there any religious objections to organ donation?

Most of the religious groups support the concept of organ donation. However if you have any doubt you can discuss it with your spiritual or religious leader.

15. How is eye donation different from donation of other organs?

Eyes can be donated for up to 6 hours after death. To be useful kidneys have to be removed within half an hour of death. However both these organs along with others can also be retrieved under different circumstances.

16. What are these different circumstances?

In 1968 doctors in Harvard found that deeply comatose patients who had sustained brain injury, never regained consciousness. Although their heart continued to beat and kept their blood circulation going, these patients were clinically dead. If their breathing support machines were stopped, the heart stopped due to brain death. A new definition of death emerged. As this death was under controlled circumstances (i.e, in the intensive care of hospitals), it was possible to retrieve some of their organs (like Kidneys, heart & Liver) after consent from their relatives. In the West, the transplantation of these organs from brain dead patients is an accepted part of medical treatment. The Govt. of India has also now accepted this new definition of death.

17. How do doctors know "a brain death" patient is really dead?

Two different doctors who are not involved with the patient's treatment and who are from a panel of doctors as recommended by the Government and from a different hospital carry out a series of tests to confirm that a patient is "Brain stem dead". The standards are very strict and are accepted medically, legally and ethically all over the world.

18. How does brain death occur?

Brain death usually results from a severe brain injury or brain haemorrhage which causes all the brain activity to stop. This can happen after a major road accident or a bleeding in the brain due to stroke.

Transplant Facts

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