KOTTAYAM: The Kottayam Medical College Hospital, which had conducted four heart transplants, is facing non-availability of donors. As of now, three patients are awaiting donors. Cardiothoracic surgery head Dr T.K. Jayakumar said the ongoing litigation against transplanting organs from the brain-dead was one of the reasons. Statistics show organ donations have undergone a drastic reduction over the past two years.
Heart donations went down from 18 in 2016 to five in 2017 and one in 2018.
The donation of the kidneys also came down from 132 in 2015 to 113 in 2016, to 34 in 2017 and only 2 in 2018. The Kottayam MCH conducted the first ever heart transplant in a public sector hospital in the state in 2015. Podimon got a donor heart on September 15, 2015. However, he died from liver and kidney failure on October 4.
The second, third and the fourth transplants were held on April 21, 2016, third on June 23, 2016, and fourth on September 27, 2017, on Subramanya Bhatt. Dr Jayakumar said that it needs long term follow up measures for elevating the institute so as to develop policies and protocols of its own.
