New Delhi: The Centre has decided to felicitate deceased organ donors and his or her family members by presenting a shawl, certificate with frame and some flowers as a mark of respect to every deceased organ donor at the time of donation, at a maximum permissible cost of Rs 1,000 per donor.
This felicitation will be in addition to the current provision of Rs 10,000 per dignified funeral per organ donor as decided by the Health Ministry. In a letter dashed off to the principal secretary (health), and director ROTTOs and SOTTOs on Thursday, National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) Director Dr Anil Kumar said that the said felicitation is to be disbursed by the respective State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO).
"The budget for additional Rs 1,000 by the respective SOTTO can be made from their miscellaneous budget under grant in aid released to them. It is suggested that two staff members of SOTTO will physically visit the Donor’s hospital/home and felicitate the family member on the spot," Dr Kumar said.
Dr Kumar said that the implementation of the donor felicitation programme is expected to boost awareness on organ donation and connect with this noble cause. "All States are requested to ensure implementation of the guidelines in letter and spirit. An action taken report in this regard may be sent to NOTTO in the next one month," Dr Kumar said.
Organ Donation is practically possible in the situation of brain stem death including a victim of a road traffic accident or cerebrovascular accidents etc. where the brain stem is dead and a person cannot breathe on his own but can be maintained through a ventilator, oxygen, fluids etc. to keep the heart and other organs working and functional.
The Centre is implementing the National Organ Transplant Programme (NOTP) for carrying out the activities, training of manpower and promotion of organ donation from deceased persons. India is the third country in the world after the USA and China, in terms of a total number of transplants done in a year. As per government data, the number of total organ transplants reached 16041 from 4990 over the last decade. Of the total number of organ transplants, 13,338 were living transplants, 2694 deceased transplants and nine were domino liver transplants.
However, Health Secretary Apurva Chandra has recently said that there is a huge gap between patients who need organ transplants and organ donors that are available.
