NAGPUR: Maharashtra has emerged a leading state in organ donation surpassing Tamil Nadu and Telangana in last two years.
Policies of the state on organ donation are ideal and the network of zonal transplant coordination centres is very effective, said doctors from Bengaluru-based Narayana Health City.
Narayana Health City is a leading network of hospitals having strong presence in south India, which earlier used to be leading in organ donation.
“Maharashtra has good coordination between government and non-government sectors which has ensured high number of organ retrievals and transplants from brain-stem dead (BSD) donors.
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The state also funds many surgeries and transplants under various health schemes to help poor people in need of organ transplant,” said Dr Julius Punnen, senior heart and lung transplant consultant.
Nagpur witnessed its first lung retrieval in September 2019. Punnen said rising number of organ retrieval is encouraging, but transportation and transplant services also need to be developed.
“Currently, lung transplant in India is at a stage where kidney transplant was 20 years ago. Lungs are complicated organs and transplant needs many technical advancements,” said Punnen.
Dr Basha Khan, senior pulmonology and critical care consultant, said less than 100 successful lung transplants have been performed in India till date.
“A few doctors in India are trained in lung transplant. We have performed two lung transplants in our hospital so far,” he added.
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Bone marrow transplant is important for Vidarbha as the region has predominant number of patients who need this.
Dr Sunil Bhatt, paediatric hemato-oncologists and an expert in bone marrow transplants, said, “Apart from various cancers, bone marrow transplant is final remedy in thalassaemia and sickle cell.
The number of patients living with these diseases is more in Vidarbha, but donors matching them are hardly available.
For this, more healthy people from Vidarbha should come forward and register as blood stem cell donors.
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”Dr Rajiv Ranjan Sinha, an expert in liver transplant, said awareness should be created about living-donor liver transplant in Maharashtra.
“In living-donor liver transplant, a portion of the liver of a healthy person is removed and placed into someone whose liver is no longer working properly. It’s safe and can save many lives.”
“Liver retrieval and transplant from brain-dead patient has become common in Maharashtra.
The next step is to create awareness about live donor liver transplant,” he said.
The Bengaluru doctors also conducted an interactive scientific session in association with the Nagpur branch of Indian Medical Association (IMA).
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