Heart to Heart! First Cadaver Heart Donation at AJ Hospital
Mangaluru: ‘Heaven’ does not need organs but millions of people will have a fresh lease of life with the organs donated by ‘Brain Dead” patients making ‘Heaven on Earth” for them- and being a ‘Cadaver Donor’ is highly appreciated.
A cadaver donor is a person who makes the decision to donate his or her body after death for the sake of scientific experiment and discovery, or for organ harvesting. Medical schools are perhaps the most common institutions to accept a cadaver donor, though private institutions may accept some donations as well. Hospitals may accept cadavers if some of the organs or tissue can be used for medical purposes. Frequently, the person must give consent to become a cadaver donor before he or she dies, though, in some situations, the next of kin can grant the permission for the donation even if the deceased person did not grant permission before death.
What is brain dead? If a person with head injury, where all the organs function normally except the brain stem (an irreversible condition) is neurologically defined as “brain dead”. Their heart beats but the lungs need to be expanded by mechanical ventilator support to maintain body oxygenation. If left, the patient would be dependent on ventilator forever till the heart seizes/stops its function. You may have heard of organ donation now and then, but do you really know what it means? You may also have a preconceived notion about what it means to donate organs. For example, a lot of people think that whenever and however they die, their organs can be donated. That is not true.
Organ donation is the process of Retrieving or Procuring an organ from a live or deceased person known as a “Donor”. The process of recovering organs is called “Harvesting”. This organ is transplanted into the “recipient” who is in need of that organ.
There are two types of organ donation – Live Donation & Deceased or Cadaver Donation. Live Donation is from a healthy and living person. This can only be done in the case of a liver or a kidney (because the liver can grow back to its normal size, and a donor can survive on one kidney). So if a near relative of yours needs a liver or a kidney, anyone in the immediate family can donate it to them. When we talk about pledging your organs or about organ donation, we are talking about Deceased organ donation or cadaver organ donation. This is organ donation from a person who has been declared brain dead by a team of authorised doctors at a hospital. A person is said to be brain dead when there is an irreversible loss of consciousness, the absence of brain stem reflexes and no spontaneous respiration.
In the past, AJ Hospital has undertaken a few cadaver organ donations, but today, for the FIRST time a Cadaver Heart donation was done. Sathish, 27 years old, had met with a road traffic accident at around 10.00 p.m. on 18th February 2017 near Karkal bypass. Initially, he was taken to City Hospital, Karkal and after the first-aid was shifted to Mangaluru and admitted in A J Hospital & Research Centre at 3:00 am on 19th February 2017. He had suffered grievous head injuries. He was declared brain dead on 20th February 2017.
Sathish hails from Padumarnadu, Moodbidri. His father Raghava Achar (63 years) is a carpenter and mother Sulochana is a homemaker. Sathish has two brothers Rajesh (31 years) a carpenter and Mukesh (29 years) is a goldsmith. Sathish too was a carpenter. It was the family’s wish that his organs be donated. Soon after learning the family’s wish, it was immediately conveyed to the Zonal Co-Ordination Committee of Karnataka for Transplantation, who in turn activated the Retrieval Team and the recipient list for the organs. After necessary legal clearances, the Organ Retrieval Team of ZCCK came from Bengaluru to retrieve the organs.
Harvested organs will be distributed as per ZCCK directive. For the first time, the Heart was retrieved at A J Hospital and taken to M S Ramaiah Hospital, Bengaluru. The liver will be taken to Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru. One kidney will be handed over to KMC, Manipal and one kidney is being transplanted at the A.J.Hospital. The organs were taken by AJ Hospital ICU ambulance with police escort to Mangaluru International Airport, and from there flown to Bengaluru by the 7:30 pm flight.
Be a Organ Donor- For further information contact: 8494890800 or Email: transplant@ajhospital.in