In the last one year, Indian patients receiving organs from brain-dead donors has gone up by 56% in Tamil Nadu. The number of lungs transplanted on Indians went up from 43 in 2017 to 84 in 2018.
After The Hindu reported on foreigners getting organs ahead of Indian nationals on the waiting list, the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (Transtan) introduced steps to bring about greater transparency in the allocation of organs harvested from brain-dead people.
The National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (Notto), an apex body that coordinates with States on the procurement and distribution of organs in compliance with the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA), has mandated that an organ could be allocated to a foreign national only after it gives its approval. Transtan has started following this guideline.
Family’s consent
Transtan is also asking private hospitals to obtain the consent of the donor family in case the organ is allocated to a foreign national.
“Besides asking private hospitals to ensure that no Indian is overlooked while allotting an organ to an overseas patient, we are getting the opinion of the family [concerned on] whether the organ can be given to a foreign national. Some families insist that the organs should go to an Indian only...there is resistance from some hospitals against this move,” a Transtan official said. No foreigner gets organs in a government hospital licensed to carry out organ transplants in Tamil Nadu.
“Effective steps were taken to ensure that the protocol of considering organ allocation in the order of State, regional, national, and then, persons of Indian origin, the tail brought up by foreign national, is being followed strictly, the official added.
“Whenever we get information that an organ is being offered to a foreign national because other Indians on the list are not suitable, or have rejected the organ, we have begun making random calls to patients on the waiting list to check if they had really declined the organ. In some cases, the patients alleged that they were never informed about the availability of the organ,” the official said.
Statistics available with Transtan show that the proportion of Indians receiving heart and lungs when compared to foreign nationals has gone up in 2018 against the previous year.
Transtan has also called for post-transplant data for both Indian and foreign patients who underwent organ transplantation in the last three years. While a national registry is being created by Notto, Tamil Nadu has made an appeal that the seniority of patients on the waiting list should remain unchanged while registering with the apex body.
In June last year, the State government ordered an investigation into an alleged organ scam. The initial investigation found significant violations of the THOA and recommended penal action against some hospitals, but the subsequent medical inquiry headed by the Director of Medical Education said there had been "clerical errors" and closed the matter.
A public interest litigation seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the case is pending in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.