What is organ donation?

Organ donation is about donating one’s organs, to be transplanted in another person who needs them for medical reason. It is of two types – 

A.   Deceased donor organ donation – organ donation after brain stem death

B.    Living donor organ donation – organ donation when healthy

 

In this blog, we shall discuss deceased organ donation.

 

How many organs can be donated after brain stem death?

 

In all, up to eight organs can be donated after brain stem death. They are two lungs, heart, liver, two kidneys, pancreas and small intestine. Thus, one person can save up to eight lives by donating his/her organs after brain stem death.

Figure 1. Organs and tissues which can be donated after life

 

 Besides organs, there are other tissues which can be donated after death like corneas, bone marrow, skin, arteries, veins, nerves and others.

 

Process of pledging organs for donation

 

There are two ways of pledging one’s organs. One can pledge his/her organs in normal health, to be donated after his/her death. There are organ transplant coordination centers to facilitate this. For e.g., NOTTO (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization), SOTTO (State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization), ZTCC, KNOS (Kerala Network for Organ Sharing) and others. The organs can be pledged for donation by filling up a pledge form, which is generally available on the websites of these organizations. The form can be submitted to the respective organizations. The near family members should be informed about the decision and one should carry a filled up organ donor card with him/her, which can be again downloaded from the website. The whole process incurs no financial costs. 

Figure 2. Sample donor pledge form (downloaded from www.notto.gov.in)

Figure 3. Sample donor pledge card (downloaded from www.notto.gov.in)

 

 

The another way of organ donation is by the family members of a loved one, when he/she has been declared brain dead by the treating doctors. For this, they need to inform the treating doctors or the hospital about their intent to donate organs and the process is then carried forward by the local hospital and regional transplant organization. No financial cost is incurred in this process also. 

 

How are organs allocated after donation?

 

Once the family of a brain dead person expresses their intent to donate the organs of their loved one, the local hospital informs the regional transplant organization. The transplant organization alerts the hospitals licensed for transplant surgeries about the availability of organs. The potential recipients on the waiting list are offered organs as per the blood group and their order on the waiting list. If refused for some reason, the organ is offered to the next person in the waiting list. The organs are assessed for their quality by blood tests, imaging and other methods. They are then retrieved on a fixed time and transplanted in the needy patients. The whole process does not incur any financial cost to the organ donor

 

Present scenario of organ donation in India

 

The present scenario of organ donation is not good in India. As per the website of Directorate General of Health Services of Govt. of India (www.dghs.gov.in), an estimated 2 lac patients die of liver failure or liver cancers in India annually, about 10-15% of which can be saved by timely liver transplants. So, against this requirement of about 25-30 thousand liver transplants annually, only about 1500 liver transplants are performed annually due to organ shortage among many other reasons. Similarly, about 1.8 lac patients suffer from renal failure annually and only about 6000 renal transplants are done annually. In the same line, about 50,000 patients suffer from heart failure annually and only 10-15 heart transplants are done annually. About 25,000 corneal transplants are done annually against a total requirement of approximately 1 lac. A major cause of this wide gap between demand and supply is a lack of general awareness about organ donation among patients as well as doctors. If people are made aware of the benefits of organ donation, a lot of lives can be saved every year. 

 

Importance of organ donation

 

 

One person can save up to 8 lives by donating his/her organs. Nothing can be more noble than this. There is no body disfigurement during the organ retrieval surgery. The surgery is done in the same way as any routine surgery on a living person. There is no extra cost involved in the whole organ donation process. The organ allotment process is completely transparent. Hundreds of people, including young adults and children die, while waiting for an organ. Many of these lives can be saved by organ donation. Organ donation is perhaps the most important thing in the present scenario of medical technology advances, where hundreds of lives can be saved if timely organs are available for transplant.

 

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