We all know the concept of Organ donation is gaining momentum in the country . Several are coming forward to donate their organs and give a new lease of life to others after their death. Keeping the importance in mind, our correspondent has caught up with Hyderabad’s famous organ transplant doctor Dr Manish C Varma. He is currently working as the Professor and Head of the Liver Transplant and HPB Surgery at the famous Jubilee Hills based Apollo Hospitals. He spoke about different issues related to the organ transplantation in the country.
Tell us about yourself?
I am Dr. Manish Varma I am a liver transplant surgeon at Apollo hospitals Hyderabad and I have been doing transplants for almost 15 years now.
Tell us about organ donations?
organ donation is a very very noble act that any of us can do. Essentially, what it means is that after a person dies, the organs if they are in a usable condition, they can be used for transplanting to patients who have got organ failure. Let me tell you that not only organs, the tissues of the dead persons can also be donated.
What is the difference between organs and tissues?
Any part of the body which requires blood for its continuous survival is called an organ. So, going by this definition, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, small intestines, all these things will qualify as organs. Tissues are the parts of the body which do not require a continuous supply of blood for them to maintain their viability and the commonest tissues that are donated and which are used are the eyes, the corneas, bones and skin. So, any person who dies can be a potential donor for organs as well as tissues. Now, when we talk about organ donation, essentially we are talking about a mechanism most commonly I will talk about the common scenarios first. So, the most common reference whenever we Talk about organ donation is a reference to a brain dead donor. Now, what is brain dead, whenever somebody dies, the death can happen because of multiple different mechanisms, either the heart can stop, if the heart stops the blood supply to all the body stops at the same time and and over a period of time, all the organs all the different parts of the body die. So, if the heart stops right now, it will take about six to eight minutes for the brain to suffer irreversible damage. The other mechanism for death is that in the brain dead the brain stops functioning. However, when once the brain stops functioning, we get a longer period of time before the other organs systems stop working. Once the brain stops functioning, the first thing that happens is that the drive to take breath, respiration is gone in the dead. So, what happens is that the person stops breathing as there is no oxygen which goes to the different parts of the body. As a result, different organs also get damaged. So similarly, if suppose death of the brain dead happens in a controlled environment like in the ICU of a hospital, the person is put on a ventilator or the person is already on a ventilator when his death happens. The ventilator does the breathing activity supplying oxygen to the body of the person m. The heart continues to work because the primary mechanism of death is to stop the brain activity. But, here, the heart continues to work and different parts of Body also get oxygen rich blood, for their survival for a period of time. Now from the death of the brain or the brain death, to the time till the other organs stop working. If the family of the person who has died consents to donate, the organs can be retrieved and they can be used for transplantation.
why is the organ donation important?
It’s important for us to first understand that our body is precious. If it can be used for a noble purpose, even after we die, it’s something worth giving a lot of consideration for. Today, a lot many people in our country and all across the world are suffering from end stage organ disease. Now when we talk about end stage disease, some people suffer from kidney failure and they need to be on dialysis for them to continue their life. Similarly, there are patients whose hearts are not working and patients whose livers are not working. These are the people who will require a transplant or a working organ to be put into their body so that they end up having a chance to live a prolonged life. Whenever somebody’s liver does not work, they would be very sick. We do not have any good options of replacing the liver functions through medicines or through machines. These these patients have a limited amount of time probably a few months during which they will need a transplant. If we have an organ donor who has donated a liver, we can transplant this into this liver failure Patient and save his life. Similarly, the organ donation can help people suffering from hearts and lungs ailments. They all are all life saving transplants. So, the organ transplant is a very important thing and a life saving operation which can be done for patients who are really sick.
What is the scenario of the organ transplantation in our country today?
India does around 6000 to 7000 transplants across all organs every year. . Out of this majority of the transplants are kidney transplants. Around 5000 transplants are done for livers and other organ systems. What we have to understand that majority of these transplants are done to living donors, when I say living donors, it means that the donors of these organs are people who are alive and they are donating a part of the organ.