Organ Donation

Since the past two months, from family to strangers, friends to relatives, I’ve been asking the people I meet one certain question: Do you know what’s on the 27th of November? Some say it’s a Tuesday, some say it’s the day after the Constitution Day. While they’re not completely wrong, it’s alarming how few people know about the actual significance of the day. Since 2015, the Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC) observes the 27th of November as Organ Donation Day on – a decision taken following a letter from the Central health ministry, which has decided to create more awareness regarding the issue.

What is Organ Donation?

To understand Organ Donation, it is first important to understand Organ Transplants. A transplant is a medical procedure where one person’s dysfunctional organ or tissue is replaced by that of a healthy person, thus restoring its function. Transplants drastically improve the quality of life of the patient and give them another chance to live. Kidney transplants and the likes have now seen a gradual rise in number, especially in urban areas. But few people are aware that organ donation can be done even after death. Organs you can donate while you are living include: part of the pancreas, a kidney, part of a lung, part of the intestine or part of the liver. However, after death too, you can pledge to donate

How Is It Possible Post Death?

Are you thinking something like “How can you donate a dead heart or lungs? What’s the use when they don’t even work?” Well, here’s how the process works: Assuming there's been an accident, the process begins with the responding paramedics, who will do everything they can to rescue you after arriving on the scene. At the hospital, doctors confirm "brain death," which is the complete and irreversible loss of brain function. This means that there's no neurological activity happening in the brain or brain stem. Basically your organs are alive and you are just on the ventilator, unable to live by your own support so the moment the ventilator is turned off your heart and lungs can cease to function at any time. Just before the ventilator is shut off, your organs can be removed and kept artificially functioning. After that the organs are individually tested to see they are fit for transplant. Once that is ascertained, they are kept secure and ready for donation to the patient who is on the waitlist for that organ; or are sent to organ banks where they are kept ready for transportation to the hospital with a needy patient.

What Can Be Donated?

Organs such as heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, pancreas and small intestines, tissues including corneas, skin, veins, heart valves, tendons, ligaments and bones. Not just organs, even skin and eyes can be donated after death. You can choose to donate tissue, such as skin, bone, tendons, eyes, heart valves and arteries after your death. You can also donate your corneas. In case of a cardiac death as well it is possible to donate your corneas and tissues such as bones, skin, veins, blood stem cells, blood and platelets, tendons, ligaments, heart valves and cartilage.

What Are The Limitations?

The first and foremost is the fact that unless the death occurs as a brain death and within hospitals, preserving organs is next to impossible. Once Brain Death has been declared, you are dead – BUT – your organs are still alive because they have been kept alive through artificial means. This means that if a person dies at home or anywhere else, and their heart stops beating, they cannot donate their vital organs. The organs of a person who has died a cardiac death (as opposed to brain death) will die within minutes of the heart stopping. Therefore – The only time you can donate your vital organs is if you are in hospital and have been declared brain dead. The second limitation to this is the lack of awareness, especially in rural areas. It’s sad to notice that some rural areas believe that a body is to pavitra (pure) to be donated away. Can there be something more pure than saving a life?

Who Can Donate?

Donation is not just for people who observe crazy fitness goals while living. The fact that even a cancer patient can donate organs after death should be an enough testament to the fact that almost everyone can donate organs. Almost anyone of nearly any age and average health can donate an organ. Although anyone who has cancer, HIV or disease-causing bacteria in the bloodstream or body tissues is usually exempt from donation, this is not always the rule. Decisions about an organ’s usability are made at the donor’s time of death or, in the case of living donors, in the process leading to donation. Medical Science has made tremendous progress in recent times in the field of transplant surgeries and operations, with organ donation from one person after brain death capable of saving up to 9 lives and improving the lives of many others. However, due to the prevalence of myths surrounding brain death and the lack of awareness in India, majority of people do not take up this noble cause for the benefit of others.

Why Is It The Need of The Hour?

The total number of brain deaths due to accidents is nearly 1.5 lakhs annually. Other causes of brain death would potentially add many more numbers. There is a need of 2 lakh kidneys, 50,000 hearts and 50,000 livers for transplantation every year. Even if 5-10% of all brain deaths are harvested properly for organ donation, there would be no requirement for a living person to donate organs. One person dies of kidney failure every 5 minutes. This amounts to roughly 290 deaths every day due to kidney failure. These numbers suggest that with adequate systems in place, people succumbing to accident-prone injuries could meet a major portion of the demand. Yet, less than a thousand transplants from deceased donors are performed each year – an incredibly small and insignificant number compared to the statistics around the world. One organ donor can up donate up to twenty five different organs and tissues for transplantation. This can save up to eight lives!

How To Donate?

In India you can go to the website www.organindia.org to register your name and print a donor card. You can pick which organs you’d like to donate or choose to donate your whole body. You can then inform your friends and family to produce the card upon your death which will act as a consent letter for the doctor, who will then proceed to do the formalities and remove the consented organs for tests and preserving.