While there’s a hue and cry over needy Goans not being able to benefit from the harvested organs at Manipal Hospital last week, little did anyone realise why Goans actually lost out. At a time when Goa is making ambitious strides in the health sector, this comes as a huge setback to be a mute spectator instead of being a beneficiary. When our government speaks of outsourcing ICU services, radiology sections and even building super-speciality blocks, a crucial segment of organ harvesting and transplants which could give a new lease of life to people have been sadly left out.
With a change in lifestyle over the years, Goa has been witnessing a high rate of diabetes and renal failures. This has been a cause for concern even for the health minister who had contemplated a third survey on Canacona’s history of renal cases. Against this backdrop, systems to facilitate organ donation and transplants should have been prioritised.
GMC, which has been recently appointed a State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), was caught napping with virtually no systems for conducting such transplants in place. Three factors that go against are: Firstly, failure to draw up a waiting list of patients requiring a transplant. Secondly, lack of laboratories for cross matching of donor and recipient, which are primary for transplantation. GMC currently looks to Mumbai for cross matching blood samples for now. Thirdly, there are no local organ retrieval teams.
The rules mandate a waiting list which is open to scrutiny of ROTTA, NOTTA and the public. Such lists are basically required to prevent future litigation by patients who feel they have been denied a fair chance to receive an organ. In the current case, there was no ready list with the GMC and holding back harvested organs would be futile since Goa did not have the logistics in place. The GMC was helpless. Given the ground realities, it could not take an independent decision without the involvement of ROTTA or NOTTA. In light of this, the current inquiry launched by Health Minister Vishwajit Rane becomes purely academic with the loopholes well-documented.
Goa may have played the role of a facilitator while not being a beneficiary, but the fact that the State machinery worked in perfect sync in the harvesting process must be appreciated. The government must now take this forward and begin to work out modalities and systems for transplants. A laboratory with cross matching facilities should be set up immediately as part of an Organ Donation and Transplant Programme. More importantly, SOTTA has to be linked with ROTTA and NOTTA so that Goans too can benefit from donors from outside the state.
