The Procedure
Of Organ Donation

A specific procedure is followed every time a cadaveric organ donation takes place. Here 's what it says:

Gift a Life and similar organisations encourages citizens to make a commitment to donate your organs on death. This is a decision that a donor makes on his own free will. Family and Friends of the Donor should also be encouraged to support the donor's desire to donate organs after death.

Doctors determine whether the person is brain-dead and cannot be revived. Brain dead patient’s organs are the only ones that are donated.

A competent doctor must certify a person as brain-dead under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, which is detailed in Form 10 The death has to be certified by any of the below authorised people:

(i) The registered medical practitioner in charge of the hospital where brain-stem death has occurred

(ii) An independent registered medical practitioner who is a specialist, to be nominated by the registered medical practitioner specified in clause (i) from a panel of names approved by the appropriate authority

(iii) a neurologist or a neurosurgeon to be nominated by the registered medical practitioner specified in clause (i), from the panel of names approved by the Appropriate Authority

(iv) the registered medical practitioner treating the person whose brain-stem death has occurred

Brain-stem dead is a person who suffers an irreversible and catastrophic condition due to a brain stroke or haemorrhage because of an injury or illness in which brain function cannot be restored. The Brain-stem is a critical component of the brain that controls all bodily functions.

The patient's pulse can still be felt, and he or she shows signs of life, but only because they are on a ventilator support which provides oxygen to the body. Organs continue to function for a few hours to a few days during which transplant can be possible.

Organs are never harvested from patients who are not brain dead. Before declaring a person brain-dead, the doctor (usually a neurologist) thoroughly examines the patient and performs a battery of tests.

Organ donation awareness is low in India, hence organisations like Gift a Life are needed to educate and raise awareness about it, as well as persuade relatives to donate organs of their family members.

As the person is deceased, the organs must be obtained with the consent of the person's next of kin or family members. Even if the person stated explicitly during his or her lifetime that the organs should be donated, the procedure cannot be carried out without the family's consent.

The Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994 defines consent explicitly. In case of an un-claimed body or a person dying without any relatives to represent, a person- in-charge of the hospital’s management can give consent of organ donation.

A team of doctors, usually from the hospital that currently has a patient in need of the organs, arrives to harvest the organs from the brain-dead patient's body after explicit consent has been obtained. The condition and illness of the patient determine which organs can be donated. Consent must be obtained for each organ to be harvested from the patient's body.

Once organs have been extracted from a patient's body, they must be transported to another patient who requires them. Organ recipients and donors are sometimes in the same hospital, and other times they are in different cities.

Sometimes, in case of emergency and less time, GREEN CORRIDOR are created to transport the organs so that it reaches the recipient in time.

The recipient who matches the donor's body gets the organ(s) for transplant. The sooner an organ is transplanted, the more likely it is to adapt to the recipient's body. The recipient's family is not responsible for the cost of organ donation and the donor is not compensated for his or her generosity.

Some organs are kept in storage for a while before being transplanted. Tissues such as bones can also be stored for up to five years outside of the human body in Tissue Banks.

After being removed from the patient's body, each organ is flushed with an ice-cold preservation solution containing electrolytes and nutrients to remove any remaining blood. After that, the organs are placed in sterile containers, wrapped in wet ice, and transported to the transplant centre of the recipient.