Sanjeev K Sharma
JAMMU, May 23: After successful three live kidney transplants, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Jammu is planning organ donations from brain dead persons.
“As it has many intricacies and infrastructure for that procedure is also yet to be installed here but still we are working on that and we are sure that in near future it will be done,” said Dr. Elias Sharma, Head of Urology Department while talking to Excelsior.
Also Nodal Officer at State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) J&K, Dr. Elias claimed that there is a good public response regarding organ donations at SOTTO which is working hard to aware masses about importance of such donations.
On green corridor facility involved in organ transfers, he said that proper liaison and networking with police and traffic personnel is of utmost important for that.
“By coordinating with police and traffic police the corridor can be created here also and we are also planning that and it will be done whenever required,” Dr. Sharma maintained adding: “To check preparedness, soon we may conduct a mock drill as far as green corridor is concerned.”
It is pertinent to mention here that SOTTO J&K has an office at Super Speciality Hospital, Jammu and it was started in the year 2019 without any Retrieval Centre (where organs from donors are collected).
“Now the Retrieval Centre has started at GMCH Jammu and SOTTO J&K has also obtained registration for kidney transplantation,” informed Transplant Coordinator, Dr. Irfan Lone at SOTTO J&K, who is responsible for all the documentation works including legal, involved in organ transplantation.
He said that so far 2-3 people have donated their cornea at SOTTO J&K.
“Awareness is the base of success for SOTTO and despite COVID -19 pandemic we organised about 100 awareness camps in last two years in Jammu district,” Dr. Lone said adding that so far more than 2000 pledge forms have been filled at SOTTO J&K by people to donate organs after death.
Sources informed that at regional level-ROTTO (for northern region) the organ high in demand is kidney with 3000 kidneys in demand per year.
ROTTO covers States of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana along with Union Territories of J&K, Ladakh and Chandigarh.
They further informed that at NOTTO (national level), three lakh kidneys are in demand per year.
Sources at SOTTO J&K informed that for organ donations from deceased donors, earlier people from J&K used to get their recipient (patient) registered either at AIIMS, New Delhi or at PGI Chandigarh but as kidney transplantation has now started in Jammu few days back, more than 25 patients got themselves registered at SOTTO J&K in last few weeks for receiving organs.
GMCH Principal, Dr. Shashi Sudan, when contacted, informed that there is a large demand-supply gap as far as donation of human organs is concerned and there is no alternate in this regard as only a kidney can replace a kidney and a heart can be only replaced by a heart.
Stressing on the importance of organ donations, she said: “All are mortal and all have to die one day but still by organ donations one can live even after death in his eyes, heart, kidney etc donated to others.”
Dr Sudan said that she has seen people coming forward to register themselves for organ donations after their deaths but as the public is very innocent in this regard, awareness is necessarily required.
“I have myself registered for organ donation,” the GMC Principal informed adding that all should do so by visiting SOTTO J&K.
She also said that Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Cell of SOTTO J&K is doing excellent job of spreading awareness regarding organ donations after deaths.
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