6^th August, 2013 was marked as Organ Donation Day. To observe this; Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) Hospital, Trivandrum invited Mrithasanjeevani, Kerala Deceased Donor Organ Transplantation Program to educate the doctors and nurses from their institute about organ donation. KIMS is one of Asia’s leading tertiary care hospital. It is initiated by KIMS Health Care Management Ltd.

 

The programme was held at the conference hall, KIMS’s hospital. The programme was started by a welcome speech delivered by Dr. Sathish, Nephrologists, KIMS’s hospital and he also spoke about the “Hurdles in Performing Deceased Donation” in their hospital.

 

Dr. Noble Gracious, Nodal Officer, Mrithasanjeevani elaborated on the administrative issues related to deceased organ donation. His presentation covered the following topics: who can certify a patient brain dead, how to apply to be on the panel that certifies brain death, role of Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS), the role of the Government in this programme, role of Transplant Coordinators, about the Government Orders and finally the problems encountered by the Deceased Donor Programme in Kerala since its inception in August, 2012.

 

After which; Mr. Johnson A, Project Manager, MOHAN Foundation explained the role of Transplant Coordinators and the challenges faced by them in coordinating the whole process of donation and transplantation. He shared his experiences in coordination and also, emphasized on the importance of transplant coordinators.

 

The next presentation was by Mr. Aneesh P. V., Transplant Coordinator, MOHAN Foundation. He spoke about how to sensitise the hospital staff about organ donation and the vital role they play in identifying brain dead patients and in maintaining the deceased donor until the organs are retrieved.

 

Finally; Dr. Praveen, Nephrologist, KIMS’s Hospital delivered the vote of thanks. There were around 35 doctors and 25 nurses who participated in the session. There were queries raised by the doctors. The queries were related to brain death certification, kidney transplantation and organ allocation.