Death declaration in AP govt hospitals is going to be mandatory !

AP govt hospitals should make brain death declaration mandatory: medical experts

Our Bureau, Hyderabad Friday, August 09, 2013, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

Medical experts stress that a ‘brain-dead’ declaration must be made mandatory in government hospitals in Andhra Pradesh. This will help to identify potential organ donors. On Organ Donation Day, observed on August 6, health counsellors and doctors explained that currently they are struggling to identify brain-dead patients, which is proving to be an uphill task. The Jeevandan Scheme has had 114 organs donated from 26 people between January and July 2013, but there is a strong need for more work. The problem is lack of awareness among the public and sensitisation of the medical fraternity. Neurologists responsible for declaring an individual brain-dead are not always sensitive about connecting the families to the government counselors for organ donation, claim members of the scheme. A senior official of the Jeevandan Scheme said, “The priority of a neurologist is to try and save the patient. But when they find that the patient is brain-dead, they ask the family to take the patient away. It’s here that the counselors for organ donation need to be introduced to sensitise the family to retrieve the organs. In 60 per cent of the cases, family members are found to agree.” The benefit of the declaration will be that hospitals can work faster towards sensitising the relatives than they do at present. Lalitha Raghuram, country director for Mohan Foundation said, “A declaration does not mean compulsory donation. It simply means that the government and organ donation committee is aware and can try their best to get consent for donation. Often people are willing to come forward to help.” Apart from technical reasons like neurologists, another important aspect is the abysmally low number of hospitals registered with the scheme. Currently, only 25 hospitals are registered, of which 18 have facilities for organ transplants. For other small hospitals and nursing homes, the quotient of benefit needs to be identified to motivate them. As the scheme struggles with the ground realities of organ donation, the scene in the country is no different with only 1,000 organs donated in the 2012, of which Chennai topped the list with 216. With changes in lifestyle, diseases are increasing, indicating dependency on organ donation to be a major need for the future.