On August 25, 2018, MOHAN Foundation was invited to conduct an awareness session on organ donation at International Fertility Centre (IFC), New Delhi. Mr. Saarthak Bakshi (CEO, IFC) initiated the talk and Ms. Pallavi Kumar coordinated it. She was also the resource person for the session and was accompanied by Dr. Muneet Kaur Sahi  & Dr. Pallavi Rekhi.

 

Mr Saarthak Bakshi is the co-founder and chief executive of New Delhi based infertility treatment provider, International Fertility Centre (IFC), which operates more than 14 clinics across India and Nepal. He is also part of Young Indians (YI), an initiative of CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), where he is engaged in activities of CAYE (Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs) where he leads teams to promote youth entrepreneurship by organizing workshops and incubation programs. This year’s theme is Organ Donation.

 

Ms. Pallavi Kumar began the session by asking the participants as to how many of them have heard of organ donation. All of them raised their hand in acknowledgement. Then she introduced the topic and took the group through various aspects of organ donation and transplantation with the help of a PowerPoint presentation. She covered various aspects like who can donate, when can you donate and which organs can be donated. While on the topic of the organs that can be donated when a person is alive, the participants replied kidneys, liver & bone marrow.

 

She further explained that only in the condition of brain-stem death that a person can donate all the organs and tissues of the body. When asked whether brain-stem dead person is alive or dead, most of the participants said ‘alive’. A short movie on brain death was then shown that gave better clarity on brain-stem death, difference between coma and brain-stem death.

 

Continuing on the subject, she explained the law that governs the transplant activity i.e. The Transplantation of Human Organs & Tissues Act 1994, a law that has put in place a wide range of actions at donor, recipient, doctor, hospital and regulatory body levels. It also identifies brain-stem death as form of death and the process and criteria for brain-stem death certification is clearly defined.

 

At the end, myths with their corresponding reality checks were explained to the group. Pallavi also shared testimonials of few of the donor families whose donation process was coordinated by MF counsellors.

 

Close to 30 participants attended the session and around 2 forms (Form 7) were picked up.