90 cadaver donations in state in 2021, No. not rising fast due to lack of awareness, facilities and experts, says State Task Force member Dr Pravin Suryavanshi

YOGESH GOLE

Aurangabad, Feb 2: The difficulty in creating awareness among the kin of the brain-dead patients, lack of adequate trained staff to retrieve the organs of the patients are some of the factors that have prevented the number of cadaver donations growing fast in Maharashtra, said Dr Pravin Suryawanshi. the member of the special Task Force appointed by the state government for facilitating the cadaver donation and organ transplant.

Dr Suryawanshi, who is also the deputy dean of the MGM Medical College, said, “Though Maharashtra is one of the leading states in cadaver donations in India, in 2021 only 90 cadaver donations took place. The target for the year 2022 is 250. The number is far less than the patients on waiting list for organs in the State. The Covid-19 pandemic also led to decline in the cadaver donation over the last two years.”

“Counselling the relatives of the brain-dead patient is a task of great responsibility that needs skills. There is very little time available for retrieving organs after the consent is received. Extreme caution has to be exercised to ensure that the organs of the brain-dead patient are not damaged. A team of 3 to 4 experts remains busy for nearly 13-14 hours to retrieve the organs,’’ Dr Suryavanshi said.

He also pointed out the need for regular training programmes for the doctors and staff working for the retrieval process. “Cadaver donations are rare. So, even if the human resources are trained, they forget the knowledge gained as they do not actually work on the process,’’ he said.

box

800 on wait list for liver transplant

As on today, 800 patients are waiting for receiving liver for transplant in Maharashtra. In 2021, 200 liver transplant procedures were performed. Similarly, several patients are waiting for kidney, lung, cornea and heart, said Dr Suryawanshi stressing the need for comprehensive awareness drive to increase cadaver donation.

Retrieval centres at civil hospitals did not take off

In 2013, it was decided that all civil hospitals will act as non-organ trnaplant retrieval centres. They will harvest the organs and sent them to centre where transplant take place. Dr Suryavanshi pointed out that not a single retrival case took place in civil hospitals since then due to lack of manpower and facilities.