No donor from Gandhi Hospital yet

Reason for failure The unavailability of invasive tests in the government hospitals is an impediment. These tests help in confirmation of brain dead in a situation when clinical tests do not help

Hyderabad: The Jeevandan programme that started in January 2013 reached a landmark of 200 donors, but the donors from government hospitals have been almost nil. Out of the 200 donors, 188 donors were from private hospitals and just 12 were from government hospitals. There was no donor from Gandhi Hospital and just one from Osmania General Hospital (OGH) till date. Eleven donations came from Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS).

While there is a mechanism in place at the government hospitals, the lack of will and a pro-active nature among government doctors is a major impediment to the success of Jeevandan programme. Medical practitioners say that the number of donors could easily have been thrice the present number if the process of declaring brain dead was done properly at government hospitals.

A majority of the patients declared brain dead are from road accidents. On an average, 2,800 medico-legal cases, including road accidents, are reported at Gandhi Hospital every month but there has been no single donation. In the last three months, 8,881 medico-legal cases were brought to Gandhi Hospital. In December 2015, the number was 2971, January 2016 3048 and February it stood at 2862.

At OGH, every day there are 1-5 deaths. When asked why the doctors at OGH are unable to investigate about brain dead cases, OGH Superintendent Dr G V S Moorthy said that all efforts would be made to make Jeevandan successful. There is a counsellor each at both Gandhi Hospital and OGH. In all, there are 23 hospitals registered with Jeevandan and 43 persons have been trained. Dr G Swarnalatha, in-charge of Jeevandan programme says, “Considering the fact that the programme is just three years into being, the response has been good. Awareness among people too has gone up considerably.

Relatives of dead people are now calling on their own to donate organs but then we can only go ahead if the person is brain dead.” The majority of the donors come from Apollo, Yashoda and KIMS. Citing reasons for the lukewarm response from government hospitals, a senior neurologist says, “A neurologist, neurosurgeon, anaesthetist, hospital administration, general medicine, general surgery and counsellor need to work as a team to declare a patient brain dead. And such coordinated effort may be difficult in the government hospitals.”