The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Need to dispel misconceptions about organ donation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 11, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Need to dispel misconceptions about organ donation

Staff Reporter

“Main reason why families decline
to donate is that
they believe pumping heart, breathing lungs
are signs of life”

CHENNAI: A brain dead patient whose body is clinically and legally declared dead can live on only through organ donation, said R. Surendran, head of surgical gastroenterology, Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital.

The main reason why families decline to donate organs is that they believe the pumping heart and breathing lungs of a patient are signs of life—a common misconception, according to Dr. Surendran.

He was speaking at a seminar organised here on Monday by the Rotary Club of Midtown Madras. The team of doctors of the hospital, led by him, which conducted south India’s first successful liver transplant in the public sector, was felicitated.

Dr. Surendran said a family’s emotional turmoil and the sense of miracles that Indian culture fosters led people to distrust the doctor when he or she declared a patient brain dead. But the only way for the patient to live on was by donating organs to those whose lives could be saved. “We don’t have a spare parts shop for these organs.”

Organs which can be donated include eyes, liver, kidney, pancreas, heart and lung. When one of these organs suffers disease “beyond the point of redemption,” the only option for a patient is organ transplant. “Organs are scarce,” says nodal officer Rosy Vennila, “and God only knows who’s going to require an organ in future.” Dr. Surendran said that at his hospital alone, 155 patients were awaiting a liver from a donor.

Currently, the statute allows organ donations with the informed consent of the family, so even if a brain dead patient holds a donor card, he or she cannot donate organs without the consent of the family—a husband, a wife, or parents if the patient is a minor. Donating organs through a living will is not suffice under the legal conditions. Until the family approves harvesting organs from the cadaver, the patient’s body remains intact.

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