MOHAN FOUNDATION
Most physicians know, transplants just don’t begin or
end with one person’s death. A whole mechanism has to come into play – to
confirm that the dead person’s organ is healthy, that his or her family is
willing to donate, that the grieving family’s religious and spiritual needs are
met, that trained professionals offer grief counseling and information about
organ donation in a non-judgmental way, that a patient waiting for an organ on
a list is notified timely, that doctors are prepared to walk into the operating
room at any time day or night when such an event occurs, that this altruistic
process is not corrupted by money or favoritism, that the public is sensitized
to the true nature of this process, that this process perpetuates and spreads
through society and that awareness amongst the general public reaches a level
of acceptance that a majority come forward to donate their organs after death.
Every year thousands of patients in India die without an organ transplant.
Others either slowly wither away under the weight of their disease while
waiting, or sometimes turn to organ traffickers to buy organs from the poor who
have been tricked into “donating” their kidneys. These donations are done under
the table, in terrible hospitals, with bad hygiene and sanitary conditions
leading to poor outcomes for both donor and recipient. It is a terrible
situation with a great need that goes unmet because of the lack of organization
critical to run an organ donation program.
And yet, the solution is right under our noses! Statistics
show that in the West, almost 37,500 organs are transplanted annually from
cadaver donors where donation rates are about 25-35 per million people. In
India we are able to retrieve organs from only about 70- 100 donors annually
because our donation rate is 0.08 per million. If we are able to increase our
donation rate to 2-3 per million, it can take care of ALL the current needs for
organs in India!
But India doesn’t have its UNOS.
MOHAN
Foundation
MOHAN (Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network) Foundation is a
not for profit organization that leads this mission to facilitate deceased organ donation in India. Since the inception in 1997, MOHAN have facilitated the donation of over 2000 organs and
tissues. The core objectives are to create awareness about organ donation, to
counsel the families of “brain dead” victims about donating their loved ones’
organs, to train transplant coordinators on the nuances of counseling, to
coordinate organ donations with hospitals and patients, to lobby with
government to pass appropriate legislation that will promote organ donation and
to ensure that all this is done in an ethical and transparent manner.
Mohan will have a booth this year at ASN 2011.
Learn about the UNOS like foundation of India- MOHAN
Dr. Anirban Bose
