Organ donation requirement high in State

Organ donation requirement high in State

PUNE: Since 2013, there has been a steady increase in demand for heart, lung, pancreas and hand transplant apart from kidney and liver in the State. 

The data by Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (ROTTO) and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (SOTTO) suggests that the need for organ donation remains high. 

According to SOTTO and ROTTO, about 5,264 kidney patients were on the waiting list until May 31. And 1,054 for liver, 58 for heart, 14 for lungs and five for pancreas and hand each.

Speaking to Sakal Times, Dr Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, Director of Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (ROTTO) and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (SOTTO), Western region, said that the waiting list is different for different organs.

“We can see that there is a steady increase in heart, pancreases and other transplants,” said Dr Gajiwala. 

“There is still a long waiting list. The gap has gradually decreased but there is still a need for more awareness. We are planning to make use of festivals like Ganesh festival to spread more awareness about organ donation,” said Dr Gajiwala.Speaking about increasing awareness, Dr Bipin Vibhute, Liver Transplant Surgeon and Head of Department of Multi-Organ Transplants Sahyadri Hospitals, said that if there is more awareness, a new lease of life can be given to more people.

“The demand is more and the waiting lists are long. Hence, many more centres should come up and spread awareness about organ donation. It will help more people in getting the benefit from it,” added Vibhute.

Speaking about the increase in liver transplant, Dr Pavan Hanchanale from Jupiter Hospital in Pune said that with cadaver and liver transplant for liver, awareness about organ donation has helped the patients in getting a new lease of life.

“There has been a steady increase in liver transplant. More teams now being available to harvest an organ from smaller towns and transportation of the organ through the green corridor has helped organ transplant a lot,” said Hanchanale.

Speaking about heart transplants, Dr Sanjeev Jadhav, a Cardiothoracic and Vascular surgeon said that there are around 4,000 Cardiothoracic surgeons in the country. ”We did the first heart transplant in western India on August 3, 2015. After that, there has been a surge in transplant all across the country. There has been more awareness as well. But I feel that only a few centres should be allowed to carry out transplants as there are highly complicated surgeries and require a high standard of infrastructure as well as a lot of human resources,” added Dr Jadhav.

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