Chennai: The state’s organ transplant registry recorded 100 deceased donors over the last 102 days this year, including 11 in April. Govt hospitals accounted for 65% of donations, records from the state transplant authority, Transtan, show. The last donation came from a 42-year-old road accident victim, who was declared brain dead at the Govt Kanyakumari medical college and hospital.Until April 13, organs from 100 donors facilitated 317 major organ transplants, taking overall tally since the programme began in 2008 to 8,569. The records show 233 transplants of minor organs and tissues, which takes the tally to 5,577 since 2008. Among vital organs, there were 177 kidneys, followed by livers (80), lungs (29) and hearts (28). Corneas continued to be the single largest category among tissues, with 158 transplants this year and 3,574 since 2008. The cumulative donor count touched 2,421 since 2008.Officials say the steady annual rise reflects improved trauma care networking, streamlined brain-death certification and growing awareness among families. “More people are now willing to donate organs,” said TRANSTAN member secretary Dr N Gopalakrishnan. “Last week, a family from Karnataka who didn’t know Tamil used online translators to understand conversations and fill-in forms. It was a moving gesture,” he said. More than 70% of the patients declared brain dead are road accident victims, he said.While state policies, including state health insurance and increased govt transplant centres, are allowing more kidney transplants, there is still a lag in heart, lung and bowel transplants. While a handful of private hospitals are doing heart and lung transplants, fewer than five hospitals do bowel transplants.
