According to Dr Gupta and Dr Rahul Saxena, Chairperson of Liver Transplant Committee, both said, “Why some people failed to survive has multiple reasons. Their age factor, their co-morbidity and their neatness in following the guidelines. In both transplants, body accepts the organ from outside. It needs a lot of time for the body to accommodate this new organ.”

“We do extensive counseling of the patients as well as their close relatives regarding the precautions to be taken. After transplant, they are given immunosuppressants drugs to keep their immune system in check. The body’s immune system helps fight off infections that cause illness. Along with drugs these people have to follow rules strictly. For example they should not go out for long time, they should avoid meeting people. They should be kept in a separate room where the level of infection should be low. They are asked what to eat, what to drink, what to avoid. We know following all these instructions is very difficult but those are necessary. We emphasize on these points while counseling patients. Unfortunately, those who don’t follow become victim to the infections,” pointed out Dr Gupta and Dr Saxena.

Dr Gupta said, “Of the 15 people who died after kidney transplant, 10 died because of sepsis. Patients with co-morbid condition, lung problem, heart problems have lot of risk. At the time of discharge we counsel them. Initially they follow every instruction but we have observed that in subsequent follow-ups they start neglecting the instructions. Relatives should not allow other people with infection, suffering from fever, cough to go near these patients.”

Dr Vibhavari Dani, President of Zonal Tranasplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC) told ‘The Hitavada’, “We follow the procedure very scrupulously. The matching of blood group and all other parameters are followed so that patients should be benefited as they spend lakhs of rupees for the life of their kins. I think good success rate is an outcome of whatever measures we take during the distribution and organ transplant procedures.” Veena Wathore, the Coordinator of ZTCC does counseling extensively.

From 2015 the number of organ donation and transplants kept rising and addition of organs too was witnessed by everyone. For example earlier only kidneys were retrived. Gradually from 2016, Nagpur hospitals performed liver retrievals too, but liver transplant in Nagpur began in 2018 with first transplant was done in New Era hospital by Dr Rahul Saxena and his team. In 2017 hearts too were retrieved but city did not have the facility to get them transplanted. At present also Nagpur has four centres where hearts can be transplanted. If one has a look at the statistics then one would find from 2013 till now, Nagpur witnessed 88 brain-dead organ donations. The organs are distributed as per the list of patients available with Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC).

Dr Vibhavari Dani, President and Dr Sanjay Kolte, Secretary of ZTCC told ‘The Hitavada’, “We keep updating our data after every donation and transplantation. Apart from the details of organ donation, their transplantation we monitor the survival rate of patients on whom organ transplantations are done. We sent this data to our State body. The success rate of both transplants is around 90% which is good. The Chairpersons concerned look after the post-transplant situation respectively.”

Dr Ravi Wankhede, former Secretary of Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC) has through Mohan Foundation provided momentum to organ donation activity. He said, “Nagpur is doing fantastic work. In recent times Super Speciality Hospital too is contributing a lot along with the private hospitals as the kidney patients need good quality dialysis set-up. Most patients can not afford private charges. They have good option in Super Speciality.”