Indore: The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation on Thursday said it was looking into a suggestion that if a patient dies in a hospital, a system should be in place to donate his or her corneas based on presumed consent. “We received a suggestion in one of our ‘chintan shivirs’ (brainstorming sessions) that if a person dies during treatment in a hospital, there should be a legal system to donate his corneas on the basis of his presumed consent,” said NOTTO Director Dr Anil Kumar.
However, the suggestion also states that if a person in writing has refused to donate the corneas, then the body part should not be donated (posthumously) as per his wish, Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of a workshop here.
The top NOTTO official said they are looking into the suggestion but the Human Organ and Tissue Transplantation Act will have to be amended to implement it.
He said currently the consent of the family is mandatory for the donation of different organs or tissues like cornea after a person becomes brain dead.
Kumar stressed that blindness due to corneal diseases is a big problem in the country. According to an estimate, at least 1 lakh corneas are needed for transplantation every year, he said.
“We want all the eye banks and corneal transplant centres of the country to join the registry of NOTTO and register information about the patients in it. For this, we have also written to all the state governments,” Kumar said.
He said that about 650 organ transplant centres in the country are associated with NOTTO, of which only 15 per cent are in the government sector.
“We want to promote organ donation and transplantation in government hospitals. But the lack of trained workforce for organ transplantation in government hospitals is a big problem,” he said.
Kumar said NOTTO is trying to start a centre for the transplantation of different organs in at least one government hospital in every state.
