Organ donation: One brain-dead can save minimum eight lives, says AIIMS doctor

New Delhi: One case of brain death can save the life of minimum of 8 persons if the organ is donated, said Dr Deepak Gupta, Professor of Neurology at All India Institute of Medical Science on Monday.

Talking about the need to create mass awareness on organ donation to save lives, Gupta said that we have roughly 0.34 organ donors per million population.

“We have 7 millions blood donors per year, but only roughly 700 organ donors per year,” he said.

The department of neurology in collaboration with Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation (ORBO) has conducted a first of its kind Simulation Workshop using ‘State of the art Simulators on Brain Death certification and Organ Donation’.

Urging people to come forward for organ donation particularly in the case of brain dead, Gupta said that doctors do not have to be with brain dead patients in ICU to learn how to conduct various tests.

Brain death is a death and there is no confusion on this anywhere in the world. Brain death is not always followed by rapid disintegration of the rest of the body if mechanical ventilation and feeding through gastric tube are continued, said Dr SS Kale, Head Neurosurgery at AIIMS.

He said that the people need to know that brain-dead is not like that only the brain has died and rest of the body is living.

“This is not the case. If the brain stem of the person has died, it means the person is dead. With the advancement in science, the parameter for certifying death has changed and the current parameter is the brain stem death,” Kale added.

“Organ transplantation is the only life-saving treatment for end stage organ failure and is performed in more than hundred countries all over the world. medical procedures that were unimaginable a generation ago are a reality today due to advanced in surgery, organ preservation techniques and immunosuppressive treatment,” said Kale on the organ donation of brain dead persons.