Doctors Focus On Need For Faster Organ Retrieval

The times organ donation week, an initiative of the Times of India in partnership with Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital ended in Chandigarh on Thursday with a roundtable conference. This conference was attended by the Haryana heath minister Anil Vij and Chandigarh home and health secretary Anurag Aggarwal. The National Organ Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) director Dr Vimal Bhandari and Haryana's principle secretary for health Mr Amit Jha gave their statements on the need and cause for organ donation. The speakers talked about the need for creating an efficient network for retrieving organs and delivering them to the needy in the most remote areas.

It was observed that Punjab lacked in this form of retrieval and delivery and discussed about the steps which should be taken for saving more lives. The nodal officer of the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (ROTTO) at the PGI, Dr Vipin Kaushal gave his statement for this.

He said, "The expansion of infrastructure must be regular in order to facilitate the preservation of organs before these are delivered to the recipient. Efficiency must be shown at every level to carry out transplants in a good number."

Dr Priyadarshi Ranjan, a kidney transplant surgeon of Mohali's Fortis hospital explains that time plays a crucial role for the transplant because the organ can be preserved only for a short span of time. She also revealed that private hospitals do not have the authority to consider a patient a potential donor when an accident is reported where the injured may survive or not, a number of formalities are involved which include police investigations and approvals from government hospitals which kill the very crucial time for organ retrieval.

Dr Ram Narain from Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital suggested measures for creating more successful cases of organ transplants to a Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC) model from Maharashtra. This model worked in Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad. The ZTCC divided the state into three zones for organ retrieval. This organization works in coordination with the hospitals of each zone to speed up organ retrieval and delivery process.

Chandigarh's Sunil Chopra was gifted a new life three months ago when his wife donated one of her kidneys to him while he suffered from a chronic disease. He remained of dialysis for three months till May 24th, when doctors at Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital conducted the transplant on him.

Sunil's blood group did not match with other people of his family. Since his wife's blood group was universal, she went for the operation and doctors gave a positive signal or this operation. He now calls his new kidney the special connection between him and his wife.