With the harvesting of liver, kidneys and corneas from a 50-year-old brain-dead man on Sunday, the Government Rajaji Hospital here became the first government hospital outside Chennai in the State to harvest organs from persons declared brain-dead.
Credit goes to the pressure mounted by activists through public interest litigations at the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court pointing out the lack of cadaveric transplants in government hospitals. This led to the appointment of dedicated staff and creation of infrastructure at the GRH for identification of brain-dead cases and harvesting organs.
Speaking to mediapersons, D. Marudupandian, Dean (in-charge), GRH, said the donor C. Nagaraj, a farmer from Perumalkoilpatti in Dindigul district, was referred to the GRH from Theni Government Medical College Hospital on Friday after he met with a road accident near Batlagundu the same day.
According to him, on Sunday, doctors detected total loss of brain function in Nagaraj while treating him. Two apnea tests were done in an interval of six hours to confirm brain death.
“Meanwhile, we talked to his family members hailing from a humble socio-economic background. His wife N. Muthupillai and five children readily agreed to donate the organs,” said S. Venkatesh, Grief Counsellor and Organ Transplant Coordinator at GRH.
The Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN) was kept in the loop and the recipients were identified as per procedures stipulated under the Tamil Nadu Cadaver Transplant Programme.
According to Dr. Marudupandian, The liver was donated to a patient in Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre, one of the kidneys to a patient in Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital, while the other kidney was given to a GRH patient. The corneas were donated to GRH. “The kidney was sent by road to TVMCH in the early hours of Monday. We did not harvest the heart and lungs since the recipients were identified in Chennai and the hospitals concerned could not immediately arrange the logistics to take the organs to Chennai in a short period of time,” Mr. Venkatesh said.
Licence obtained
M.R. Vairamuthu Raju, Dean, GRH, who was in Chennai on Monday, said the hospital would be carrying out more such organ donations, as the hospital had obtained licence from TRANSTAN for performing heart, lungs and liver transplants.
He lauded his team, particularly anaesthetists, including S. Sivaprasath, Assistant Professor, Institute of Anaesthesiology, GRH, for their crucial role in management of the donor under brain-dead condition during organ retrieval.
