Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

`Govt. ready to amend Transplantation of Human Organs Act'

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Dec. 22. The State Government is prepared to amend the Transplantation of Human Organs Act and to simplify the definition of "brain death'' in order to increase the number of cadaver transplants in the State.

This was stated by the Health Minister, Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, while inaugurating a workshop on "Transplant'' organised by the Nephrology Department of the Gandhi Hospital here on Sunday.

He gave an assurance that Government will provide sufficient funds to Osmania, Gandhi and Vishakapatnam hospitals to take up kidney transplants.

Transplant surgeons from Chennai, Vellore and Delhi besides local doctors participated in the workshop aimed at arriving at a consensus on transplant problems.

Dr. Siva Prasad Rao said that at present only 50 kidney transplants were done in Government hospitals, while another 100 were done in private hospitals in an year while there were 2,000 patients with kidney failures.

There are a number of legal and social problems associated with harvesting organs like kidney, liver, lungs, bone marrow and cornea from victims of traffic accidents who have irreversible brain damage. He stressed the need for more counsellors to motivate relatives of patients to donate organs.

Pradeep Deshpande, Professor and Head of the Department of Nephrology, said the department had completed 10 years of its existence and is looking forward to conducting kidney transplants when the hospital moves to Musheerabad. G. Shyamsunder, Vice-Chancellor, NTR University of Health Sciences, said that they would teach the superspeciality DM course in nephrology at Gandhi and Vishakapatnam hospitals this year. C. Ramadevi, Director, Medical Education, and others spoke.

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