Mumbai: The Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC) is likely to hold meetings with city intensivists to discuss creating awareness related to organ donation and which will benefit many patients in Mumbai. This comes after the city witnessed only 18 cadaver donations since January till date, which has given a new lease of life to 43 patients.
Officials said they have been taking several measures to increase cadaver donations and the main aim is to know about brain-dead patients whose organs can be retrieved after family consent. “Considering the waiting list for organs, we have been lagging behind in organ donation as brain-dead patients are not notified or most of the family members are not ready for organ donations due to which we need to take some steps to boost the cadaver donations across Mumbai,” said a senior doctor.
In Mumbai, 3325 patients are waiting for a cadaver kidney, while 328 await a cadaver liver. The wait list for small bowels is 7 patients, pancreas (12),the heart (28) and lungs (9). As many as 6 patients are waiting for both heart and lung transplants and five patients are waiting for a hand.
Dr Bharat Shah, general secretary, ZTCC, said organ donation has been hampered due to the ongoing pandemic as retrieving organs from brain dead patients was not possible. However, over the last two months, there was a drop in Covid cases and the focus was shifted to non-Covid sectors; but cadaver donations have not seen a huge surge.
“Our main aim is to hold meetings with the intensivists to create awareness as they are the ones who come across brain-dead patients. They can notify and counsel family members for organ donations. They are the right persons to reach out and explain the importance of organ donations to the family,” he said.
