Jyoti Basu’s pledge injects hope among doctors for body,organ donation

Basu,India’s longest serving chief minister,had pledged his body while inaugurating a workshop organised by Gana Darpan,an NGO promoting organ donation,on April 4,2003.

For decades,the ORBO at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has been encouraging people to donate organs for transplant and bodies for medical research. “At times,we are short of whole bodies for medical students. In such cases,students use unclaimed bodies. But we need people to voluntarily donate bodies because they are in a better form. Unclaimed bodies,mostly victims of accidents,come to hospitals in a damaged condition,” said Dr Aarti Vij,associate professor,ORBO.

Since 2004,the ORBO has received 68 whole body donations. At present,over 11,000 people are registered with the programme run by the organisation,Dr Vij said.

While whole body donation is useful for medical research and education,cadaver donation is of immense help in organ transplant. “Only three patients have donated their bodies so far to our hospital. When families tell us that they want to donate the body,we get in touch with a medical college to have it transported. In case of cadaver donations,families have to be counselled but such cases are quite low,” said Dr B K Rao,director,Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

Organisations use whole embalmed bodies to teach anatomy to medical students. Individuals enrolled in a private programme usually fill up a form consenting to donate their body. If prior agreement has not been reached,family of the deceased can provide the necessary consent for donation.

“In case a patient is brain dead,his or her organs can be reused and if the patient’s heart has stopped beating,we can still use the tissues. Eighty per cent of families want the body back and hence the instances of whole body donations are low. Looking at our registry though,the numbers have doubled since 2004,” added Dr Vij.

In 2004,only eight bodies were donated,she added. The youngest donor at ORBO has been 40-day-old patient while the oldest was a 97-year-old man.

If you wish to donate your body,contact ORBO at: 1060,001-26593444