: Following a recent public interest litigation (PIL) filed at the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, the Government Rajaji Hospital administration has begun a feasibility study to set up facilities for harvesting organs.
C. Ananda Raj, a health rights activist from Madurai, had filed the petition seeking a direction by the court for effective implementation of organ donation programme at GRH. He had pointed out that while private hospitals were leading in harvesting organs from brain-dead persons, GRH has not performed even a single cadaver organ harvesting despite handling a large number of fatalities.
He had also earlier written to the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN), the nodal authority for organ transplants in the State, asking why government hospitals were lagging behind in organ transplants.
GRH authorities said that harvesting of organs will require separate infrastructure, including new buildings and additional staff for round-the-clock deployment.
“From the accident cases, we need to identify brain-dead cases and monitor them in separate wards. A panel of doctors including neurosurgeons should be constituted for certifying a person as brain-dead,” said an official from GRH.
The official said that a team of professional counsellors should also be formed to interact with the family members of the brain-dead person and seeking their approval for organ harvesting.
“Separate infrastructure for surgical procedures to harvest the organs and for transplanting the organs to receivers should also be set up,” another official said.
A senior official from the administration said that setting up the infrastructure may cost around Rs. 50 Crore.
“We will be preparing a proposal for taking it to the government and also for submission to the court,” he said.
