Chennai: Tamil Nadu, which has taken a big
leap in cadaver organ transplantations in last two years, has
crossed the 400-mark after two government hospitals performed
five organ transplants recently.
Four kidneys, two livers, four eyes and some portion of
heart valves were harvested in a space of less than 13 hours
from two accident victims Venkatesan (29) and Parthiban (42),
declared brain dead recently after their relatives agreed to
donate the organs.
With this, the total number of vital organ donations
recorded in the state`s central organ registry has crossed 400
since 2008 when the government launched the state-wide
programme to create awareness about cadaver organ transplants
As against a meagre six donors accounting for 30
transplantations in 2008, the state witnessed a quantum jump
in 2009 with 317 transplants from 59 donors.
Tamil Nadu Health and Welfare Secretary V Subburaj said
many people were willing to donate organs, but awareness among
medical professionals and the public was lacking. The state
government, on its part, has allocated Rs five crore for
cadaver and stem cell maintenance, he said.
According to Dr J Amalopavanathan, Transplant
Coordinator, Cadaver Transplant programme, Tamil Nadu has
emerged on top among the states in cadaver organ donations and
organ harvesting in the past six months, putting it on par
with top performers at the international level, despite
constraints in infrastructure.
Explaining about the latest transplantation, GH Dean Dr
J Mohanasundaram told PTI that "A 30-member renal transplant
team, including doctors and para medicos, conducted three
kidney transplants at the Government General Hospital and one
kidney and one liver transplant at Stanley Medical College
within a record span of 13 hours."
Stating that the transplantation procedure was a
challenging task since it required co-ordination of multiple
doctors, Subburaj said the surgeries were successful and all
the patients were doing well.
The beneficiaries of the programme were poor patients
coming to government hospitals, he said.
According to hospital sources, of the four harvested
kidneys, three were transplanted at the GH (on two women --
aged 19 and 29 and a 35-year old man. The fourth kidney was
given to the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital and
transplanted on a 24-year-old man.
Mohanasundram said the eyes were donated to the eye bank
and the heart valves were given to a private hospital for
using them later as matching recipients could not be
ascertained immediately.
PTI
