Track brain death cases in ICUs to up donation rate: GoI

NEW DELHI: Noting that poor identification and certification of brain stem deaths in ICU patients was keeping the organ donations rate at low levels in the country, the Centre has asked states to monitor such cases in ICU.

The advisory is aimed at augmenting the organ donation rate, which is less than one donor per million population. “One of the key challenges identified in this is poor identification and certification of brain stem death (BSD) cases despite the availability of many such potential cases,” Dr Anil Kumar, director, National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), said in the letter sent to all states and UTs and directors of regional and State organ and tissue transplant organisations (ROTTOs and SOTTOs) last month.

As per provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs Tissues Act, 1994, it is required to identify potential brain stem death cases in the ICU. Under the law, it is mandatory to enquire whether they had pledged for organ donation and, if not, to make the family members aware of the opportunity to donate organs before the heart stops, he said.

The doctor on duty, with the help of transplant coordinator, is required to make the enquiry after certification of such BSD cases, Kumar said, requesting all institutions to facilitate and monitor the certification of BSD cases to ensure compliance of provisions of the Act and Rules. The official attached list of information to be collected from the hospitals on a regular monthly basis. The SOTTOs should collect this from each registered hospital and send it to the national authority by the seventh of every subsequent month, the letter said.