Jipmer’s deceased donor programme completes a year

Families of organ donors with Jipmer doctors on the occasion of the firstanniversary of the hospital’s Deceased Donor Organ TransplantationProgramme here on Friday.

In a year of running a ‘Deceased Donor Organ Transplantation Programme,’ the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) has facilitated transplant of kidneys and corneas from nine brain-dead donors benefiting 36 patients, acting Director and Medical Superintendent J. Balachander said here on Friday.

Felicitating the families of donors at a function to mark the first anniversary of the transplantation programme, he said that the families had made a noble gesture while coming forward to donate organs despite an occasion of immense loss and grief from the demise of their loved ones.

Not even a single retrieved organ was lost due to tremendous coordination between doctors, paramedical staff and hospital administration.

The institute had a brain death committee who would be responsible for declaring a person brain-dead.

The institute had also come up with standard operating procedures for brain death declaration, he said.

Dr. Balachander said that the deceased donor transplantation program, which was commenced at the institute in December 2013, is a complex process involving multiple departments in the hospital.

Jipmer has only permission to harvest kidneys and cornea as there are lot of legal issues.

“We are planning to start liver transplantation from next year. So far, we have been unable to send harvested organs to Tamil Nadu because inter-State transfer of organs requires special procedures. Puducherry has not yet passed a law which will authorise transfer of liver to other states,” he said.