The shifting of a brain-dead person from NIMHANS to Kengeri on Tuesday could have been avoided if NIMHANS had been recognised as a non-transplanting retrieval centre.
Although a number of cases pertaining to road accidents and neurological disorders that have the potential of being declared as brain-dead come to NIMHANS, hardly any case is reported from this premier institution as it is not a retrieval centre.
The Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka (ZCCK) for Organ Transplantation, which is pushing to get NIMHANS recognised as a non-transplanting organ retrieval centre, says the cadaveric organ donation programme could gain momentum if trauma care institutions such as NIMHANS are authorised to retrieve organs. It is for this reason that the ZCCK is headed by the NIMHANS Director, said a member.
NIMHANS Director P. Satishchandra, who is also the ZCCK Chairperson, admitted that hardly five to six brain death cases have been reported from the institution so far. “We specialise in neurosurgeries and do not have a facility for organ retrieval,” he said. “As of now, if a brain death occurs in the hospital, we have to shift the body to a transplantation centre. Most families either do not agree for the body to be shifted or change their mind about organ donation by the time the logistical arrangements are made,” he said. G.K. Venkatesh, former Director of Institute of Nephro Urology, who is also a member of ZCCK, said even if two accident-related brain death cases are reported from NIMHANS every day to the ZCCK, the backlog of patients waiting for organ transplants could be reduced drastically.
