A medical team of the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on Wednesday harvested multiple organs of a brain-dead person and transplanted a kidney in a needy patient, the first such organ harvest-cum-transplantation performed at the hospital.
‘Team effort’
CMCH Dean B. Asokan said that Wednesday’s procedure was a milestone for the tertiary-level Government hospital, which was achieved through “a team effort”.
The liver, kidneys and corneas of a 35-year-old man from Kattabettu in the Nilgiris were harvested after he was declared brain dead. He suffered a grievous injury to the brain when he fell from a building under construction.
Dr. Asokan said that as one kidney was allotted to the CMCH by Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN), which controls the transplantation programme and organ sharing in the State, it was transplanted in wait-listed patient at the hospital by Wednesday evening. The entire procedure -- from harvest to transplantation -- took seven hours.
While other kidney was allotted to Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital in Salem, the liver was allotted to a private hospital in Coimbatore.
Both corneas were also allotted to CMCH.
The injured man was brought to CMCH on February 2. The Dean said he did not respond to treatment and was declared brain dead Tuesday evening after the mandatory medical examinations.
Family’s consent
The hospital’s grief counsellor approached the man’s family members for organ donation and they consented to it. The consent was conveyed to TRANSTAN, which allotted the organs to the three hospitals based on the waiting list.
CMCH has been performing live-donor kidney transplantation since 2017. In 2018, it obtained approval from TRANSTAN to start registration of patients for cadaver kidney transplantation.