Second multi-organ donation at RML

The hospital performs only kidney transplants but is equipped to harvest other organs for transplantation at other hospitals. The transplantation programme started in the hospital in 2011, but counsellors were hired only in 2017.

The organs of a 21-year-old man, who died because of a head injury, saved the lives of three people. Both his kidneys and the liver were harvested a the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. While one kidney and the liver were allocated to patients at AIIMS, one kidney was used in the hospital itself.

The hospital receives 1,000 – 1,200 patients in its emergency department every day. It caters to most of the accident victims from Central Delhi.Accident victims have the highest potential of becoming organ donors. (HT FILE)

This is the second multiple-organ donation in the hospital.

The first one happened over a year ago.

The hospital performs only kidney transplants but is equipped to harvest other organs for transplantation at other hospitals. The transplantation programme started in the hospital in 2011, but counsellors were hired only in 2017.

The hospital receives 1,000 – 1,200 patients in its emergency department every day. It caters to most of the accident victims from Central Delhi.Accident victims have the highest potential of becoming organ donors.

Yet, in a year the counsellors can find only about 10 to 15 eligible potential donors. Of such patients, only two patients agreed to a donation in two years at the hospital—setting a conversion rate of 6.6%

In comparison, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, which also has a stand-alone trauma centre, sees at least 2,000 patients in its emergency department every day. They see around one multi-organ donation every month, which is 30% of all its eligible donors.