As part of the National Organ Donation Day celebrations, MOHAN Foundation organized a seminar at the College of Physiotherapy, SRM Institute of Science and Technology Chennai. Inclement weather conditions in Chennai caused the seminar to be postponed to 4th Dec 2021 and to be conducted virtually. Around 198 participants attended the seminar.
Two interns and organ donation Ambassadors of MOHAN Foundation, Drs. Sarath Kumar and Karthikeyan, alumni of SRM (2014 batch) worked hard to make this seminar happen with the support of Dean Prof. T Veeragoudhaman Sukumaran and the Director of Alumni Affairs Dr. A Rathinam. The organisational support was provided by Dr. Mercy Joy, Asst Professor. Dr. Hemal Kanvinde, Ms. Ishwarya Thyagarajan and Mr Ganesh C represented MOHAN Foundation.
The seminar started with a short prayer followed by a welcome address by Prof. T S Veeragoudhaman, who encouraged the students to learn from the seminar and followed by a felicitation address by Director of Alumni Affairs Dr. A Rathinam who said that when alumni bring forward interesting topics, his department would always provide support. This was followed by a special address by Dr. Hemal who spoke of the value of trained grief counselors. Representing alumni, Dr. Sarath Kumar spoke of the efforts of MOHAN Foundation in creating a system for deceased organ donation in India. A video on the importance of organ donation shot by the alumni was played for the audience.
The first session of the seminar was Concepts of Organ Donation and the speaker was Ms. Ishwarya. She spoke of the causes of organ failure, what, by whom and when can organs be donated. She explained the basic concept of brain death, threw light on statistics, and the process of pledging for organ donation. Giving an example of a young double hand recipient, she explained the joy of receiving a second life.
The next sessions conducted by Dr. Hemal was on Protocols followed in Hospitals during a Deceased Donation. Through a presentation and short videos she explained the major steps like early identification, brain death certification, organ allocation, retrieval and post donation work and stakeholders in each step. The session highlighted the intricate and multilevel coordination involved in a donation.
A video explaining brain death was played followed by a lecture by Dr. S. Arunan, Head of Department of Neurology, SRM Hospital and Medical College. He went through the entire process of brain death certification and the reasons for the specific tests, pre-requisites, exclusions, apnea test, pitfalls and additional tests for confirmation. He also highlighted the tests for paediatrics deceased donors.
In the final segment Mr. Ganesh took the participants through three training programs offered by MOHAN Foundation for aspiring Transplant Coordinators. He touched upon the value of being a trained transplant coordinator and helping patients get a lifesaving organ.
Following the scientific sessions, discussions were around India’s low donation rate, what stops people from supporting and taking a pledge, which organs are difficult to get, benefits for donor families, living donation process, the high cost of transplantations, government funding schemes and outcomes of transplant surgeries. All these queries were answered by Dr. Hemal and Ms. Ishwarya.
A motivational film made by interns Batch III of the college was played at the end of the session. The vote of thanks was delivered by Dr. T N Suresh, Vice Principal of the college.
MOHAN Foundation thanks the Ambassadors for their effort in organizing and the Dean and Director of Alumni Affairs for their support.
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