2024 ended on an all-time high for Tamil Nadu’s deceased donor organ transplantation programme — 268 donors (218 men and 50 women) and 1,500 organs/tissues utilised.
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In a year that saw Tamil Nadu recording the highest number of deceased donations, over 50% of the donors came from government hospitals. Out of the total 268 donors, 146 donors (54.48%) were from government hospitals.
2024 ended on an all-time high for the State’s deceased donor organ transplantation programme — 268 donors (218 men and 50 women) and 1,500 organs/tissues utilised. Private hospitals accounted for 122 donors (45.52%), according to data from the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN).
After the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the programme for two years, the number of deceased donors rose to 156 in 2022 followed by 178 in 2023. A number of factors contributed to a rise in awareness on organ donations in Tamil Nadu; the main being State honours for deceased donors and honour walks by institutions.
In the past few years, more government hospitals were enabled to function as Non Transplant Organ Retrieval Centres (NTORC). “As of now, there are 35 NTORCs in the State. We included more government hospitals. We identified the challenges and fine tuned protocols and Standard Operating Procedures, re-oriented and trained representative faculty members from 25 medical colleges and also held academic updates and guest lectures for them,” said N. Gopalakrishnan, member secretary, TRANSTAN.
Collective efforts have paid off, he said, adding that transplant coordinators and grief counsellors were motivated and when conversion of brain death to donation happened, the team shared personal notes of appreciation to the grief counsellors.
Among the government hospitals, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital had the highest number of donors at 28. Government Thanjavur Medical College Hospital followed with 14 donors, while Government Dharmapuri Medical College Hospital and Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai accounted for 13 donors each. There was extra thrust on creating awareness on organ donations, he said, adding that the Health Minister and officials periodically reviewed the deceased donor organ transplantation programme.
“We still have a long way to go. As of now, kidney transplants are performed in 13 government medical colleges and liver transplants in two government institutions,” Dr. Gopalakrishnan said. It is learnt that measures are being taken to start liver transplants in more government hospitals in the State in the near future.
He said that this year, there are plans to involve medical college students by way of establishing student wings to sensitise undergraduate students in organ donations and transplants.
Published – January 09, 2025 10:55 pm IST
