Pune first in state with 62 cadaver organ donations

PUNE: A short film competition called Green Corridor held this April generated a buzz about organ donation. Gift Life, a programme organised by Rotary District in August this year, led to over 21,600 people pledging to donate their organs on an online portal.
These, and other small steps are making giant strides in cadaver organ donation that have jumped four-fold in Pune from 16 in 2015 to 62 till date, this year. Mumbai, which has had the highest number of cadaver organ donations till 2017, came second with 45 donations.

Last year, cadaver organ donation in Pune was close to Mumbai’s. “Family members of 57 brain-dead patients donated their dear ones’ organs in Pune as against 58 such patients in Mumbai,” transplant coordinator Aarti Gokhale of Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC), said.

This year, along with more heart, liver and kidney donations and their transplants, there were two lung donations from Pune which benefited patients in Chennai.

In January, an attempt was made to perform Maharashtra’s first double hand transplant (non-vital organ) on a serving solider at Command Hospital in Pune. The kin of a brain-dead unemployed man donated his hands along with other vital organs, including his heart, liver and kidney, that benefited three needy persons.

However, after undergoing the 15-hour surgery, the recipient slipped into hyper-acute rejection. The surgeons remove the transplanted limbs to save his life.

The transplant of a womb, another non-vital organ, was the crowning glory when a 23-year-old Vadodara woman , the first patient to have undergone uterine transplant last year, delivered a healthy baby girl in October this year. She was the 12th baby born through such a transplant in the world.

“Along with non-vital organ transplants like the hands, womb and pancreas, transplants of 138 vital organs including heart, liver and kidneys this year have given a new lease of life to needy patients battling end-stage heart, liver and kidneys diseases. Families understood the cause and rose to the occasion,” Gokhale said.

The committee, a registered body with the charity commissioner, is formed by the appropriate authority through a government resolution to promote cadaver organ transplant. There are four ZTCC in Pune, Mumbai, Aurangabad and Nagpur. Aurangabad has recorded seven organ donations while Nagpur had 17.

Ramchandra Hankare, chief of the health department at Pune Municipal Corporation, said, “Private hospitals performing organ transplants have increased in Pune.”

Three hospitals have the licence to perform heart transplants in Pune. Nine more have sought the licence to perform liver transplants. A total of 18 hospitals have the licence to perform kidney transplants. Quite a few of these hospitals perform multiple organ transplants.

The state-run Sassoon General Hospital has been carrying out kidney and liver transplants for the last two years.

Gokhale said the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation has appreciated the 46 awareness activities ZTCC organised this year.