MOHAN Foundation was invited to conduct a talk on organ donation at Courtyard by Marriott, Gurgaon on October 6, 2016. The talk was coordinated by Ikjot Johar, Assistant Manager - Training. The talk was as part of the 'Joy of Giving Week' that is celebrated from October 1 -8, 2016. The session was taken by Ms. Pallavi Kumar, Executive Director, Delhi- NCR and she was accompanied by Ms. Mareena Thomas, Programme Officer.

 

Ms. Pallavi Kumar started the session by asking the participants if anyone of them had heard about organ donation or have ever pledged to be an organ donor. There was one person, the chef at the Hotel, who said he had pledged to be an eye donor but wasn't carrying his card at that time. Ms. Kumar added that having a card is not important for the donation of organs, but what is important is the will and consent of the family.  She added that after our death it is the family that has to give the consent for the donation to take place. None of the participants had ever heard of brain death. It was explained, along with the help of a video on brain death that only in the case of brain death is organ donation possible.

 

Ms. Kumar explained that a person is declared brain dead by four different doctors that have nothing to with transplantation and are not involved in any way in allocation. Apart from that the doctors have to sign on a document that comes under the scrutiny of the government. Thus, there is no way they can declare a person brain dead when he is not.

 

Ms. Ikjot posed a query as to why skin needs to be donated. Ms. Kumar explained how skin donation is required in serious burn injuries. She also added though the systems in our country are not yet in place to support skin and bone donation and there is a need of skin banks that can treat and preserve the skin.

 

There were 20 participants and 20 donor cards were picked up.