The Jeevandan organisation of the State Government has been able to distribute more than 200 organs for transplantation harvested from 43 brain-dead persons since its inception 16 months ago.
“The hearts and lungs are exclusive of this and they were sent mostly to hospitals in Chennai,” Vice-Chancellor of NTR University of Health Sciences and Chairman of Jeevandan, T. Raviraju, told The Hindu on the occasion of the opening of Jeevandan's Zonal Office in the Super Specialty Block of King George Hospital on Sunday.
The number of centres where the cadaver transplantations are taking place has gone up from 11 in the combined AP to 23 in the bifurcated State. Most of them are doing kidney cadaver transplantation. Four centres are conducting liver transplantation and only one centre, the Government General Hospital in Guntur, has performed heart transplantation.
There used to be one cadaver transplantation during a year in the past but now more than 40 have taken place, Dr. Raviraju pointed out to explain how the people are willing to donate organs of their brain-dead family members to facilitate transplantations for the critically ill patients to turn around.
Regarding cadaver transplantations at the King George Hospital here, Dr. Raviraju said the hospital authorities had been asked to apply for permission and he expected kidney transplantations to commence soon.
Zonal Office
The Zonal Office of AP Jeevandan was inaugurated by Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas. It would serve the north coastal Andhra districts and East Godavari district. It would coordinate the distribution of organs retrieved from brain-dead persons to the needy in the zone.
Distribution of organs is now being done zonal-wise and if the organs are not required in the zone from which they were collected, would be sent to the zone which needs them, Dr. Raviraju said. The entire process, from receiving requisition to allotment of organs is online and Chief Transplant Coordinator G. Krishna Murthy would oversee the whole operation.
