Poor identification and certification of brain stem death or brain death cases is keeping the rate of organ donations at low levels in India, despite the availability of many potential cases, the Union Health Ministry has said.
Expressing concern over the rate of organ donations in the country remaining at less than one donor per million population in a year, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) asked health authorities in States/Union Territories to identify each potential brain death case admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and inquire whether the potential donor had pledged for organ donation. If not, hospital authorities should make family members aware of the opportunity to donate organs before the heart stops.
Issuing a Standard Operating Procedure under the provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994, the DGHS said the doctor on duty in hospitals, with the help of the transplant coordinator, should make necessary inquiries after the brain death cases are certified by the competent authority.
