Experts seek to plug holes in transplant regulations

CHENNAI: In the wake of controversy over M Natarajan, husband of jailed AIADMK leader V K Sasikala’s husband, jumping the organ transplantation queue, participants at a meeting organised
by the State transplant authority identified a set of loopholes in the rules that ought to be plugged.

One of the gray areas involved offering preference to patients who were under treatment in the same hospital where the organs were harvested. In Natarajan’s case, many questioned the lastminute airlifting of a donor to the same hospital in Chennai where Natarajan was undergoing treatment.

The participants at the meeting were senior doctors from various government and private hospitals and P Balaji, member secretary of the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu. They predominantly discussed heart and lung transplant. Sources said many participants stressed on providing a level playing field for all patients regardless of their financial background.