KIMS Seminar On Organ Donation & Transplant

Financial assistance for transplant surgeries available under BSKY, says Additional DMET

Odisha has taken many steps to popularise organ transplantation activities and has progressed a lot since the year 2000. While there are eight centres for transplant and retrieval of organs across the State, it has so far done 1,312 organ transplant surgeries including 10 deceased transplants so far.

While speaking at a seminar on ``Organ donation and transplant’’ at Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences last evening, Additional Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET), Government of Odisha Prof (Dr) Umakant Satpathy, who is also the nodal officer of State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), observed that awareness must also be spread among people that monetary support is also available for the organ transplant operations like kidney and liver under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY).

He also observed that while Odisha is registering 11,500 road accident cases every year out of which around 5,000 deaths are reported, with proper awareness and pledging we can harvest more organs so that people with end-stage ailments and in the need of organs could be of great help.

At the hospital level, the additional DMET also proposed brain stem death (BSD) awareness, coordination for organ harvesting and transplant teams constantly in touch with SOTTO and above all, a mega IEC campaign across the State and local basis to raise public awareness and perception on organ donation as a single BSD certified person can save at least eight lives by donating his/her organs. He also called for better NGO coordination in the entire process as their role in organ donation and transplant has become crucial across the world.

Earlier, speaking on ``Medical issues and challenges relating to organ donation and transplantation in India’’ Prof (Dr) YK Chawla, Chairman, Academics KIMS spoke elaborately on how the process started in India under the leadership of Prof Samiran Nundy at AIIMS New Delhi and now India has evolved a lot and 14 states are having SOTTO and there are five Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisations (ROTTOs) under the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation. Currently, India has 618 transplant centres and 104 non-transplant retrieval centres.

Associate Professor Nephrology KIMS Dr Nikunj Kishore Rout said ``on July 13th this year KIMS had helped in harvesting two kidneys from a brain-dead pediatric patient, which were later successfully transplanted in two patients at a private hospital and both the recipients are doing well.

He also added that KIMS’ success came less than a month of DMET nod for harvesting of organs. On July 31, there was also a corneal harvest done at KIMS. The development buttress KIMS’ readiness for future transplant activities and emerging a leading player in this super specialty domain. Dr Sujata Dash Head, Network of Eye Banks LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) and a leading corneal surgeon, spoke on corneal infections and eye banks as India is having 7 million blindness cases due to corneal issues. However, on a happier note on India’s achievement, she added that 55 percent of the global corneal harvest is coming from US and India. She also called for efforts to popularise Hospital Corneal Retrieval Programme (HCRP) as the voluntary corneal collection in Odisha is very less.

The seminar was attended by Prof (Dr) Subrat Acharya Pro-Chancellor KIIT University, Prof (Dr) CBK Mohanty Pro-VC School of Medicine, Prof (Dr) YK Chawla Chairman Academics, Brig Prof (Dr) AP Mohanty Principal and Prof (Dr) AC Anand HoD Gastroenterology and Prof (Dr) Ramachandra Das, Medical Superintendent of KIMS. Among others, senior faculties like Prof NK Das of the Department of Neurosurgery, Prof Indrani Rath of the Department of Ophthalmology, Prof. MK Mohapatra HoD GI Surgery, Dr. A Sharda HoD CTVS, Dr. Sumanta Mishra HOD Urology of KIMS and hundreds of students attended the seminar deliberating on medical, ethical, legal and related issues of various challenges and processes of organ transplantation.