Hospitals in Andhra Pradesh unwilling to provide organs to Telangana patients

Hyderabad: Jeevandan, the government-run organ donation scheme, has been bifurcated with Telangana getting 20 hospitals in Hyderabad, and Andhra Pradesh, 10 hospitals in Visakhapatnam, Nellore and Vijayawada. This has led to a problem — hospitals in AP are unwilling to provide organs to patients in Telangana. A senior officer with Jeevandan said, “More patients are registered with hospitals in Hyderabad and there is a greater need for donated organs here. But hospitals in AP are not willing to co-ordinate with Telangana. There is no heart and liver transplant unit in AP and we are cajoling AP officers to ensure that these two donated organs are sent to Telangana.”

So far, 117 donors have donated 520 organs since the scheme began in January 2013. More families are coming forward to donate the organs of their brain-dead relatives but few city hospitals have the infrastructure and expertise to harvest an organ and ensure its transplantation.

Private hospitals have done most of these transplants, and government hospitals lag behind as they do not have the infrastructure or the expertise.

A senior officer said, “There is complete lack of upgradation both in expertise and infrastructure in government hospitals.” Also, both states do not have hospitals with expertise in harvesting organs located along the highways. This leads to organs of persons who die on the spot in accidents, or are brought dead to hospitals, go waste.

Minister on priority list

A government order has been issued to give priority to minister A. Chandulal in the Jeevandan organ donation list for a kidney.

Both the kidneys of the 60-year-old minister have failed. His relative had offered to donate his kidney but fell ill and was disqualified by doctors. This is the first time that a priority has been created for a state minister.

The wait list for a kidney from the Jeevandan scheme has 670 patients. Patients are prioritised depending on their health condition. But there is a hitch.

A senior Jeevandan officer said only kidneys that can be harvested from patients who are within the age group of 50 to 60 years can be given to the minister.

The reason is that the chances of rejection are very high and the donated kidney will be wasted if the donor is younger, said the officer.