Until a year ago, walking a few steps was itself a huge task for Hvovi Minocherhomji, a heart transplant recipient from Mumbai. Now, the 22-year-old college student who enjoys roller coaster rides wants to advocate the cause of deceased organ donation.
She was one among the 30 candidates, who completed transplant coordinators’ training programme, at Mohan Foundation in Chennai on Friday.
Hvovi was diagnosed with a condition called left ventricular hypertropy that makes heart work harder to pump blood.
“I used to feel breathless and lost weight as I did not have an appetite. I suffered a stroke and had two surgeries. My ordeal came to an end when I underwent a heart transplant in Chennai in June last year. Such a procedure is yet to be performed in Mumbai,” said Hvovi.
Her struggle and wait for a transplant had encouraged her to take up the month-long programme to create awareness about organ transplants.
“My parents too took up a similar programme and motivated me to become a transplant coordinator,” she said.
Among the candidates from various centres at the workshop is Tebogo Bantshi, a nurse, who flew all the way from Botswana, to be trained as a transplant coordinator. “We are still practising only living organ donation in our country. I want to share information about deceased donation done here. I want to spread awareness about the programme and help nurses and social workers to get trained,” she said.
The role of such trained transplant coordinators was appreciated as ‘pivotal’ by Health secretary J. Radhakrishnan. He gave away the certificates to the participants.
On the training programme, Sumana Navin, course director of Mohan Foundation, said this was 29{+t}{+h}such training programme and 837 candidates have been trained so far.
Sunil Shroff, founder, MOHAN Foundation, said it is now mandatory for hospitals to appoint coordinators to counsel families of donor and transplant recipients and coordinate the procedure.
