WB Government to boost organ donation

In order to boost organ donation in the state, the West Bengal Government has decided to ask hospitals with critical care units to notify them and submit a report on the number of brain dead patients on a monthly basis. The health department of the government believes that this will help them to spread awareness or to communicate with the families to boost deceased organ donation in the state. West Bengal, however, has seen a rise in the organ donation graph in the last year. From only a single donation in 2017 to 15 organ donations in 2018, the graph has gone up quite well. Even in 2019, the city of Kolkata has already seen two donations in the last two months. Dr. Arpita Raychaudhury, joint director of Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation said, “Asking hospitals to report the number of brain deaths will definitely give a push to the organ donation drive in the state”. “There are two issues — viability of the donor organ and structural organizational aspect. We cannot transplant a liver that’s found to be unfit”, said Dr. Abhijit Choudhury, hepatology head at SSKM Hospital’s School of Digestive and Liver Diseases.