- The first cadaveric organ transplant took place in 2015 and till now 58 brain dead patients have donated their organs in the state.
- Rajasthan was the first state in the country where the driving license applicants expressed their willingness or unwillingness to donate their organs. Since 2018, more than 4 lakh people have pledged to donate their organs on their driving licenses.
- The country’s first organ donor memorial was built in Jaipur, which was inaugurated on the occasion of the National Organ Donation Day on 27 November 2020. This memorial of organ donors of Rajasthan will always inspire people to support this noble cause
- India ranks third in organ transplants after the USA and China. In 2022, 43743 transplants took place in the USA of which 37276 were cadaveric transplants and 6461 were living transplants, while in China out of 20333 transplants, 170054 were from cadavers and 3274 were from live donors and in India, out of 16041 transplants, 13338 transplants were done from the live donors and only 2694 were from cadavers.
- India recorded the highest number of cadaveric organ donations in 2023, touching the four-digit mark of 1,062.
- Rajasthan leads in online registration of organ donation by pledging to donate organs on the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) website. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to people to pledge to donate organs online in September 2023 and till February 14, more than 35,000 people in Rajasthan out of more than 1.41 lakh people from India have pledged to donate their organs.
- In India, 3.17 lakh patients are waiting for a kidney, liver, heart, lung or pancreas transplant. There is a significant gap between the number of organs available for transplantation and the number of patients awaiting transplants. Organ donation helps address this shortage and reduces the waiting time of the patients.
The state government after opening the state’s first Non-Transplant Organ Retrieval Centre (NTORC) at Jhalawar Medical College in Jhalawar will soon open in other medical colleges of the state.
To promote organ donation, Jhalawar Medical College was issued the certificate of organ and tissue retrieval where organs of brain dead patients can be harvested after a case of a brain dead patient came to light.
It is to be mentioned that Bhuria (39) resident of Kitia village was admitted to Jhalawar Medical College after he fell from the roof of his house on February 21. He was declared brain dead due to serious head injuries. After the doctors declared him brain dead, health minister Gajendra Singh and department additional chief secretary Shubhra Singh asked the officers to counsel his family for organ donation. On getting consent from the family members, the certificate for organ retrieval was immediately issued to Jhalawar Medical College on Saturday.
A team of doctors from Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota were sent to help the doctors of Jhalawar medical college to retrieve the organs of Bhuria. The team harvested two kidneys, a liver and corneas and SMS Medical College was allotted one kidney and liver while one kidney was allotted to AIIMS Jodhpur. A green corridor was made with the help of the Rajasthan traffic police and the organs were sent to Jaipur and Jodhpur through four ambulances. These organs gave a lease of life to three persons. This was the 58th brain dead organ donation in the state.
Currently, the state has four government transplant centres including Sawai Man Singh Medical College in Jaipur, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Jodhpur, Dr SN Medical College in Jodhpur and Medical College in Kota, where organs of brain dead patients are harvested and transplanted.
In a recently held sensitisation programme on organ donation and transplantation in Jaipur, Mohan Foundation managing trustee Dr Sunil Shroff said that there are 35 Medical Colleges in the state including 24 government, 1 AIIMS, 1ESI and 9 private and brain dead organ donations take place only In SMS Medical College in Jaipur. He suggested starting at least organ retrieval in each government and private medical college in the state so that brain dead organ donation gets a boost in the state.
He suggested starting Non-Transplant Organ Retrieval Centre in five medical colleges including SP Medical College in Bikaner, RNT Medical College in Udaipur, JLN Medical College in Ajmer, Jhalawar Medical College in Jhalawar and RUHS Medical College in Jaipur immediately. In phase 2, Dr Shroff asked to start NTORC in another five medical colleges including RVRS Bhilwara, Dungarpur, Churu, Bharatpur and Pali in the next six months and in the remaining medical colleges in phase 3.
