1,000 need transplants, 14 organ donations: Doctors seek new policy after 2024 alarm in Bengal
Times of India | 28 May 2025
Image used is for representational purposes only KOLKATA: The gap between patients waiting for organ transplant and the number of donations taking place remains abysmally wide in Bengal despite increased awareness of deceased organ donation and transplant surgeries. Close to 1,000 patients currently feature on the state’s transplant list, but so far, only six deceased organ donations have taken place in Kolkata in 2025, benefiting 18 organ recipients, apart from tissues like the cornea and skin. Last year, there were only 14 deceased organ donations.Kolkata has facilities for transplantation of heart, lungs, liver and kidney. The waiting list is longest for renal-failure patients, with 635 patients waiting for a donor kidney, shows ROTTO (East) data. The number of patients awaiting liver transplant is 149, followed by 115 waiting for a heart and 22 for lungs. “The list includes only those who have enlisted and registered as prospective organ recipients. The actual number of patients needing organs is much higher,” said a ROTTO (East) official.“Awareness of the concept of brain death declaration is a very important step towards promoting organ donation. But in the absence of a policy framework to make such declarations mandatory, we have a very low rate of brain death declarations,” says nephrology professor Arpita Ray Chaudhury, former joint director of ROTTO (East).In some southern states like Tamil Nadu, declaration of brain death is mandatory in govt hospitals.Irreversible brain death is a state where there is no chance of reviving the patient except for keeping them under ventilation until the heart stops. Organs like the heart and lungs come from deceased donations while kidney and liver transplants can be done with organs from living donors. Experts say the reason why southern states like Tamil Nadu has stolen a march on others is because declaration of brain death is mandatory there in govt hospitals.Doctors from across the city, experts from ROTTO (East) and NGOs brainstormed on ways to narrow this gap and increase the number of deceased donations at a recent meeting organised by Kolkata Nephrology Forum and Manipal Hospitals. .“There is a need to increase brain death declarations, which eventually will push up organ donation figures in our state,” says nephrologist Pratik Das of RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences.The state-run IPGMER Trauma Care Centre (TCC) follows an audit on the identification of potential brain death patients, followed by a declaration after the mandatory two tests and counselling of the families of the deceased.“We do this documentation following NOTTO guidelines on potential brain stem dead patients. If all hospitals follow this guideline, there will be many more such brain death declarations, which ultimately will boost deceased donation,” says Rajat Chowdhury, critical care medicine specialist Rajat Chowdhury, who heads the TCC.In fact, half of the 14 deceased organ donations in 2024 started from IPGMER, the only govt hospital contributing to deceased donation in the state. Among private hospitals, Apollo’s record is better than others.“Among various efforts of the Bengal Organ Donation Society, we are planning to involve religious or community leaders in our organ-donation awareness programmes as their words carry a lot of weight with the public,” said liver transplant intensivist Indrajeet Tiwary of Apollo Hospitals.