PANAJI
Thirteen hundred individuals in Goa have formally pledged to donate organs on their deaths even as 29 organs -- 16 kidneys, seven livers, four hearts and two lungs -- were harvested from eight brain dead donors, mostly accident victims, over the last four-odd years since the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) was established at the Goa Medical College.
All these organs were successfully used in transplant procedures at hospitals here and also in other States.
According to SOTO data, living donors of organs have also risen with as many as 49 organ transplants performed so far with kidneys donated by living donors.
Interestingly, women outnumber men on the roster of living kidney donors in the State so far. Usually, the living kidney donors are next of kin of the recipient patients.
Of the 49 people who donated kidneys while alive, over 70 per cent, 34 were women and 15 were men. On the flip-side, in the list of recipients of the kidneys, the ratio reversed with 35 kidneys transplanted into male patients and 14 beneficiary patients were women. SOTTO data also shows that 34 corneal transplants have been conducted, thus far.
In Goa, kidney transplant procedures are conducted at the Goa Medical College and a handful of private hospitals. and SOTTO, which is headed by GMC Dean, Dr Shivanand Bandekar, actively engages with communities across Goa to create awareness about organ donation.
At the GMC, meanwhile, where brain deaths occur at the rate of 1-2 per month, these are by default notified to SOTTO whose teams then engage with the patient's families to tap the opportunity for voluntary organ donation. The family is explained the meaning of "brain death" and then organ donation is suggested, a SOTTO official said, adding that the decision to donate is purely that of the families.
68 ON WAIT LIST
A total of 68 patients are on the waitlist for kidney transplants in Goa. Of these, 52 are active and need a kidney donor. Twenty-five of them are in the O blood group, 11 are A, eight are B and another eight are AB.
