What is Organ Transplant in India?

Organ transplantation is a procedure in which the surgeons will use the healthy organs of an individual and transplant it into the patient’s body. Before donating the organ there is a consent form which needs to be signed by the person who wishes to donate their organs. There are two types of organ donations in India which is (i) living donor and (ii) deceased donor.

a) Living donors: Generally, the surgeons at the hospitals under We Care India least recommended living donors to donate an organ while they are still alive. Living donations only can be donated for liver and kidney transplants because in this only a small part of the donor organ is removed and will be transplanted into the patient’s body.

b) Deceased donors: The organ transplantation will only take place when all the legal requirements for the deceased donor procedure which include the death certificate of the donor and consent of an individual while he/she is living.

In the case of deceased donors, there are several organs can be transplanted to another person who is in need and this includes kidney, liver, heart, lungs, pancreas, intestines, and tissues.

Who can donate the organ?

Anyone can become an organ donor, irrespective of their age, race, or gender, whosoever is ready to donate their organs they need to undergo for the medical assessment which will be performed by medical professionals to determine the health and suitability of each organ before it is retrieved from the donor’s body, which includes both, living and deceased donors.

Once the organs are retrieved, your medical professional will match the organ using characteristics like blood type and size of the organ needed by the patient. Also, they will check that who is on the waiting list from a long period and how sick they are, and the distance between the donor and the potential recipient.

What is the legal law to get the organ transplant in India?

The following is the legal law to process organ transplantation in India and these are:

• The donor should be below the age of 18 years and the hospital requires consent from a legal guardian that he/she is eligible to donate their organs.
• If the patients are dead, then the medical professionals will check their medical history, past diseases and illnesses of the deceased donor before they use the organ for transplantation.
• The medical professional will match the organs of the donor and the recipient before the transplantation process.
• Before organ transplantation the definition of death and consent of an individual that whether he/she is living.

How the procedure of organ transplant in India works?

Allocation of the organ is a vital part of any organ donation program and it needs to be based on an ethical principle or sharing equality.

India is a country where an appropriate authority by a government is responsible for the organ transplantation.

The government has set four main objectives for organ transplantation and these are:

i.) Implementation of the deceased donor program needs to be done as per the Transplantation of Human Organ Act which was passed in 1994.

ii.) Hospitals which are dealing in organ transplants need to ensure the fair and equal availability of deceased donor organs as per the waiting list.

iii.) Donor rate in India has been increased.

iv.) Increase patient access to state of art transplant technology.

How to get registered for an organ donation in India?

To become an organ donor you need to follow the following instructions and these are:

1. Register yourself by filling the form for organ donation and this can be downloaded from the National Organ and Tissue Transplantation website or you can collect it from a medical facility.
2. After that, you will receive an organ donor card which you need to keep with you at all times.
3. In case, you are dead and you filled the form that your brain or heart can be donated to the person who is in need, in such cases, the medical professionals at the hospitals under We Care India will refer to the card for your donation intentions, and will also contact your family for further consent.
4. As a donor, your organ donation card needs to sign by at least two witnesses.
5. The hospitals under We Care India will look after all costs, logistics, and coordination during the organ donation process.
6. The hospital can only retrieve the donor organ only when they have received the formal consent from the donor’s family.
7. Once the organ is retrieved, the hospitals will give back the deceased donor’s body to their family for final rights.

Organ donation is a gift which you are giving to someone after your organ has served your body; imagine that after your death your donated organ can save many lives every day.

How the suitability of the organ can be checked?

The suitability of the organ can be checked by the following methods:

i.) Blood test: Blood test is done for the purpose to find if someone has an ABO blood group so that there is no mismatching in the blood groups while donating the organ.

ii.) Crossmatch: The purpose of this test is that it helps in identifying if the recipient's antibodies will accept or reject the donor's kidney.

iii.) Serology: This is a blood test which is done check the transmissible diseases such as HIV, CMV, and hepatitis so that it will not affect the recipient’s body.

How much does the organ transplant cost in India?

The cost of Organ Transplant in India depends on several factors for example; the cost for transplanting a bone marrow will be somewhere between USD 40, 000 to USD 70,000, whereas kidney transplantation in India will cost you between USD 8,000 to USD 35,000. If you compare this cost of organ transplantation with other developed countries than you will find India is the most reasonable and affordable country for organ transplantation as the cost for the same procedure will begin from USD 1,50,0000 in the countries like the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, etc.