MOHAN Foundation

MOHAN Foundation

Mohanfoundation.gif
Founded	1997
Founder	Dr. Sunil Shroff
Focus	Organ Donation
Location	Chennai, India
Area served	India
Website	[1]

MOHAN Foundation is not for profit, registered non-government charity organization that works in the field of deceased organ donation and transplantation. MOHAN is an acronym for Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network. It has offices in Chennai, Hyderabad,Bengaluru,Delhi and information centers at Visakhapatnam,Coimbatore and Chandigarh.

History

MOHAN Foundation was first conceived in 1996 and was started in 1997 in Chennai. It was founded by an Urologist and Transplant Surgeon – Dr. Sunil Shroff along with a few like-minded people. It has its headquarter in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Promoting Organ Donation

The concept of brain death is central in the mission to educate the masses. Brain death is a state in which there is cessation of brain function, typically after receiving an injury,(traumatic or pathological, to the brain, or otherwise cutting off blood circulation to the brain (drowning, suffocation). Breathing is maintained via artificial sources which in turn maintains heartbeat. Once brain death has been declared the person can be considered for organ donation.

In 1994, the Indian parliament passed a law called Transplantation of Human Organ Act that accepted brain death for organ donation and made organ commerce a punishable offense and for the first time in India it was possible for these deceased donors to donate their organs and tissues provided the family consented to organ donation. India follows informed consent, unlike Spain and some of the other European countries that follow presumed consent. There are 23 organs in the human body and one can donate kidney, heart, liver, lungs, pancreas and the small bowel as well as tissues like cornea, skin, bone, tendons, cartilage and heart valves. However due to the lack of awareness level among the public and medical professionals this concept of organ donation in India needed a shift in attitudes.

The methods used to promote the concept of organ donation by the foundation includes - organizing awareness talks among public through meetings,holding rallies, organizing programmes in the colleges and offices with organ donation as a theme, sensitizing police and hospital staff on issues related to donation and from time to time honoring of deceased organ donor families. Donor cards and brochures related to organ donation and brain death are distributed at such events.

Distribution of Donor Cards

Donor cards expresses one’s desire to donate organs after death and has been an instrument used by MOHAN Foundation to create awareness and get organ pledges. Over a million such cards in English and regional Indian languages have been distributed by the foundation in over a decade.

In a major organ donation drive in March 2012 called DAAN, it partnered with HCL Technologies along with Apollo Group of Hospitals,Chennai Police, Indian Medical Association, Cadaver Transplant Programme(Govt. of Tamil Nadu) and received 12,900+ pledges from policemen, doctors and corporate employees. This was the largest organ donation campaigns in the country at that time. . However this record was superseded by the Times of India (TOI) in July - August 2013. TOI partnered with four NGO’s in the field of organ donation including the foundation to create awareness and received 50,000 plus pledges for organs.

Using celebrities, religious leaders and politicians - to Support the cause of organ donation

Celebrities,religious leaders and politicians are also used for creation of public awareness on this issue.

In India, celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Anil Kumble, Revathi Menon, Madhavan, Sunil Shetty, Kiran Rao, Raveena Tandon and Anand Gandhi are among the many who have promoted and pledged their organs . Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has promoted eye donation in the past.

In a function in Hyderabad in 2012 former cricketer V.V.S. Laxman and Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji supported the cause of organ donation. This function was held for the launch of a Public Education Film on Organ Donation and ‘Honouring Organ Donor Families.’

In the function Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji said “People have a false notion that they would be born without organs in the next birth, if they donated their organs this birth. Many saints and kings in the past have donated their organs for a noble cause.”

In April 2012,Mrs. Sheila Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi became the first chief minister in India to pledge her organs when she signed on a pledge board on organ donation at an event held in Delhi.

The shortage of organs has been an international phenomenon and India has been no exception. This has led to organ trade and has often stigmatized the noble concept of organ donation. However the promotion of the deceased donation programme especially in states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh has meant more organs and has had some impact on lessening the organ commerce.

Training Transplant Coordinators

Transplant coordinators are medical professionals who could either be a doctor, an allied healthcare professional or a medical social worker who coordinates activities related to organ donation. One of their core function is to counsel the families of a brain dead relative for organ donation.

These coordinators can act as link between hospitals, citizens, donors and patients requiring organ donation. Training of coordinators through one week, one month, 6 months and one year courses is one of the core activities of the foundation. This training programmes has partly been funded by one of the oldest philanthropic institutions in India, Sir Ratan Tata Trust & Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust. These coordinators are trained in medical, legal and ethical aspects related to organ donation and are also imparted soft skills for grief counseling. The structured training ensures that they are able to approach and counsel the families of ‘brain dead’ patients for organ donation. The coordinators not only facilitate organ donation and transplantation in a positive environment but function to provide the much-needed support to the donor family. The 3 year project from 2009 to 2012 resulted in training of 334 transplant coordinators and helped improve the organ donation rate in India.

It partners with other NGO’s like Shatayu and Government organisations like Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee of Maharashtra and Karnataka who work in this programme to train the Transplant coordinators in different cities besides Chennai like Ahmadabad , Mumbai , New Delhi and Bangalore.

Online Organ Registry

Registries for organ allocation ensures a fair, equitable and transparent distribution of organs and ensures that the harvested organs are not wasted for want of recipients. It ensures that no one jumps the waiting list queue.. At present the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation runs an Indian Transplant Registry . In 2009 the Cadaver Transplant Programme of the Government of Tamil Nadu used the experience of the Foundation in creation of a registry for deceased donors and transplantation. In 2012 a similar registry was created for the Department of Health, Government of Kerala The Government of India in the years to come too has a plan for national organ registry.