Dr.J.Amalorpavanathan, Convenor, Tamil Nadu Cadaver
Transplant Program, spoke to the members on the subject of Organ
Donation.
He cleared many myths and cleared the process
of donating organs. While many people wanted to do a good deed and come forward
to register and pledge their bodies for organ donation, the only organ that can
truly be harvested after the death of a person is the eye. For that too, a very
short window is available and even if the person has pledged to donate, the
point is, given the situation and incident, will the family remember and take
the action of calling the hospital to harvest the eye is a question. The other
instance of donation post death is the donation of the body for study and
research purposes. Bodies are needed for teaching and the only way the colleges
get them is either through unclaimed bodies or full body donations. Kamal Hasan
has committed to donate his body for research.
Harvesting of organs from a dead body is possible only in a
very controlled and well prepared scenario where the whole setup is kept ready
to start
harvesting within the first few minutes of death. This is
because the blood starts clotting within
4 seconds of death and needs to be put through an artificial circulating system
before clotting happens.
Organ donation as we know
is the harvesting of organs from brain dead patients. Here also, the
brain death is the result of the brain stem not responding and it has been
medically proven that a person in coma
under a brain stem injury will never recover. Thus any removal of life support
is legally allowed and declaring such a patient as dead is legal, opening the
way for harvesting. Another interesting fact is that in most cases families of
such patients allow harvesting during their deepest moments of grief. Several
instances of this were cited.
Also, given the ethics, likely
misuse, and the long list of patients waiting for organs, Tamil Nadu setup the
first legal framework to regulate the process of identification, harvesting and
distribution of harvested organs. The TN model has been adopted across the
country. No organ can today be distributed without the approval of the organization
that Dr. Arul heads.
It is because of this frame work
that the organization organization can approach the traffic and other
authorities to seek speedy passages and
facilities for moving organs not only on the roads but also through other means.
With the above background, the
drive of donor cards and registration is only a way of reaching out to people
to spread awareness of organ donation and not really register and list people
who are ready to donate organs.
A truly enlightening talk that cleared
many concepts and myths.
