Sanjeev K Sharma
JAMMU, July 29: Soon the vehicular movement will be restricted by cops on a particular route in Jammu though there would be no movement of Prime Minister or President or Lieutenant Governor of J&K or some other bigwig, and, the cops would be seen stationed at most of the places on this route to check violation of the restriction as a mock drill would be underway to check preparedness for a future operation of laying Green Corridor intended at saving someone’s life and this exercise would be conducted for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory to facilitate human organ transportation.
Sources informed that the mock drill will be accomplished jointly with the coordination of district administration Jammu, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Jammu, State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) team of Jammu, local and traffic police and Airport Authority of India (AAI).
When contacted GMCH Principal, Dr. Shashi Sudan informed that organs like heart, pancreas, lungs etc are transplanted only at few centers in India and such organs are transported via Green Corridor.
“May be within a week or 10 days the mock drill might be conducted while many works for success of the same are underway,” she said adding: “When we have availability of some organ we inform ROTTO, Chandigarh or NOTTO, New Delhi and their team arrives here after which we retrieve the organ from the brain dead person and give it to the visiting team that has arrived to collect the same ensuring no wastage of time and in this way important human lives will be saved.”
It is pertinent to mention here that at regional level there is ROTTO (for northern region) and it covers States of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana along with Union Territories of J&K, Ladakh and Chandigarh while at national level there is NOTTO.
“After the Brain Dead Declaration Committee (registered by Directorate General of Health Services, New Delhi) declares a person as brain dead, the anaesthesia team maintains the brain dead person as his heart and other body parts continue to be functional. This is very sensitive work involving great responsibility,” the GMCH Principal maintained.
She further said that apart from all these, there is Neurosurgery Department, Medicine Department, Neurologists and Deputy Medical Superintendents as Nodal Officers who coordinate in all such tasks.
“Similarly the Deputy Medical Superintendents of three hospitals-GMC Hospital Jammu, SMGS Hospital Jammu and Super Speciality Hospital Jammu are made as Nodal Officers and too coordinate in such operations.
Dr. Sudan further said that many people die in accidents every year and if organs of such deceased persons are donated, the same may save many lives and “we have to spread awareness in this regard.”
Dr. Sanjeev Puri, Deputy Director SOTTO J&K informed that Green Corridor works both ways-that is, if an organ is to be taken from Jammu to some other place then the Corridor has to be placed in Jammu and if some organ is to be brought from some other place to Jammu, then also it is required to be put in place here.
“For the mock drill, we have to make Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all the departments concerned. We have already conducted meetings in this regard with AAI personnel, local police, traffic police, Medical Superintendents of concerned hospitals and whenever the Principal GMCH gives a nod, the mock drill will be conducted,” he informed.
Dr. Puri further said that SOPs are given by SOTTO as per Organ Transplantation Act while the Civil Aviation Department has already issued such SOPs to AAI and police on its part has assured to facilitate the Corridor on the pattern they provide security to some VIP moving from airport to his destination and back to airport.
“We at SOTTO have asked Superintendents of the three hospitals to send their nursing staff having B.Sc Nursing qualifications so that those nurses might be trained as Transplant Coordinators as per the Act,” he maintained adding: “SOTTO will sensitise these Transplant Coordinators about organs by imparting them proper training after which they will also aware people on organ donations.”
Giving more details, Transplant Coordinator, Dr. Irfan Lone at SOTTO said: “All allocation work involving from where the organ will come and to where it will be dispatched, which team will come and which team will take the organ etc will be done by SOTTO.”
“Suppose if a heart is allocated by NOTTO to a hospital in Mumbai, then a team from that hospital will visit GMC Jammu. Their arrival and departure will be looked into by SOTTO Jammu in coordination with other departments involved in the operation,” he said adding that the visiting team has to send air tickets of their arrival and departure from Jammu according to which timing would be set by SOTTO Jammu for the visiting team to leave GMCH Jammu with the organ.
Reliable sources informed, even if there are 10 flights in line at airport, the one to carry the organ will be allowed to leave on priority and as per directions of Director AAI the flight will take the shortest aerial route to reach its destination thereby having green corridor even in the sky.
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