MOHAN Foundation in partnership with AORTA (Army Organ Retrieval & Transplantation Authority) successfully conducted the 4th Transplant Coordinators’ Workshop from March 11-15, 2019 at Army Hospital (Research and Referral) Delhi Cantt, New Delhi. It was held under the aegis of Office of DGMS (Army) IHQ of MoD (Army) and NOTTO (National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization).  The training was organized by Col Satish Mendonca (Director, AORTA) and the logistics coordinated by Lt Col Sandhya V Nair, Transplant Coordinator, Army Hospital.

 

24 delegates that mainly included medical officers and nursing officers attended the training. There was representation from 13 states (Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh) and 2 Union Territories (Delhi and Chandigarh).

 

More than 24 eminent speakers and experienced professionals from the medical/non-medical fraternity conducted sessions on a variety of topics like, Introduction to Organ Transplantation, Basic concepts of organ donation, History of Transplantation, Transplantation of Human Organs Act, Corneal Donation, Grief Counselling, Donor Pledging, Brain-death & maintenance of potential brain-dead donor, Retrieval Process at Zonal Hospital level, Whole body donation, Bone Donation, HLA testing &cross matching, Organ donation and transplant organizations, NOTTO (registry/allocation/sharing), Qualities & role of a Transplant Coordinator, Basics of heart/liver/kidney/pancreas failure & transplant, Skin Donation, Ethics of organ donation and transplantation, Setting up of a deceased donation programme in a hospital and Public awareness/media engagement.

 

A few movies on brain death, counselling, and organ donation were shown to the participants during the course of the training. A group activity named ‘Organ Donation Pathway’, wherein the participants were asked to arrange the cards depicting the process of organ donation, sequentially, an organ donation quiz, and other activities were conducted after dividing the participants into groups.

 

On the last day, Lt Gen U.K. Sharma, Commandant, Army Hospital (R&R) gave away certificates to all the delegates who successfully completed the course.

 

The training was supported by the TATA Trusts.