MOHAN Foundation’s work with Transplant Coordinator training gets international recognition
Dr. Sumana Navin (Course Director, MF) represented the Foundation at The Congress of the Asian Society of Transplantation (CAST) in Singapore and her paper on ‘Impact of Trained Transplant Coordinators on the Deceased Donation Transplantation Programme in India’ was conferred the Best Abstract Award. CAST is the region’s largest and longest-running gathering of transplant physicians, surgeons and other health professionals involved in transplantation.
She also presented a paper on Improving the Deceased Donation Transplantation Rate in India. Both these papers showcased the impact of MOHAN Foundation’s training programmes, public advocacy and out-of-the-box strategies as well as best practices in capacity building, which were very relevant to the countries in the region. Keen interest was displayed in the Transplant Coordinators' Training Programme with the audience wanting more details about the training, the composition of the participants (social workers/nurses etc.), and the challenges faced by transplant coordinators. Prof. A. Vathsala, President, CAST 2015 complimented MOHAN Foundation on the work that it was doing.
MOHAN Foundation Awarded the prestigious British Medical Journal South Asia Award 2015
MOHAN Foundation has been awarded the prestigious British Medical Journal South Asia Award 2015 famously known as “Oscars of Healthcare/Medicine” under Healthcare Advocacy category for its relentless efforts using every tool, methodology, process and technology to promote organ donation in India and South Asia for the past two decades.
MOHAN Foundation has emerged a WINNER among 900 nominations and 36 finalists with 12 winners in different categories. The award was received by Mrs. Lalitha Raghuram (Country Director, MF) at the awards ceremony organized on October 30, 2015, at The Leela, Mumbai.
We at MOHAN Foundation feel that it is extremely important to share the recognition of the excellent work by MOHAN Foundation team that has set standards of excellence in deceased organ donation in India. We have consistently and professionally delivered the very best for organ donation to the people of India and this award is a testimony to our efforts.
''Beginning of the New Dawn'' - A Two Days Conference Of The National Association Of Transplant Coordinators
The two days conference of the National Association of Transplant Coordinators (NATCO) saw 120 enthusiastic delegates from all corners of India. As this conference was held in conjunction with the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation (ISOT) Conference, the delegates had the rare opportunity of listening to some of the finest speakers from all over the world.
The NATCO conference was formally inaugurated by Dr. Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. He lauded the work done by transplant coordinators, and urged them to continue to do the good work of saving the life of patients that are suffering with end stage organ failure.
Jaipur, Rajasthan continues to make strides
This quarter saw the first liver and heart transplant in Jaipur. This is a significant development in the history of transplantation in Rajasthan, which was so far only performing kidney transplants. MOHAN Foundation began work in Jaipur in partnership with Jaipur Citizen Forum under the MFJCF banner less than 2 years ago, setting up the state’s deceased donation program.
From organ commerce hub to organ donation – The Hindu, November 19, 2015
MOHAN Foundation’s efforts were recognized by The Hindu, a leading newspaper in our country. It mentioned how MOHAN Foundation played a pivotal role to train large numbers of people as grief counsellors and has evolved a fine data management system for co-ordinating voluminous information on transplants and keeping it secure, but transparent. MOHAN Foundation started in 1997 is now seen as an organisation that is now the go-to unit for clarity on aspects of cadaver donation formed by Dr. Sunil Shroff, a urologist, with like-minded folks.
The role of the grief counsellor, speaking to families of brain dead people urging them to consider organ donation at a time of great trial is crucial. The ultimate act of sacrifice by a family agreeing to donate the organs, remains at the heart of the success of the cadaver transplant programme. If there are no donors, there are no recipients, and there is no programme.
Presently Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India has a well-developed program where registries of recipients are maintained. In the case of a brain death the person who is first in the waitlist is entitled to receive an organ. This avoids all the mal practices around organ donation. The Tamil Nadu programme is more committed, transparent, accountable, and all states would do well to follow this model.
All these efforts have tremendously helped in controlling the organ commerce, especially in southern India.
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This was a significant quarter for the Foundation in more ways than one.
Transplant Coordinators’ Training Program gets Government endorsement
This was indeed a landmark quarter for the Foundation as our training program for Transplant Coordinators received the acknowledgment and endorsement of the government. The Foundation was invited by NOTTO to conduct the first joint Transplant Coordinators’ Training Programme July 20- 24, 2015
NOTTO (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization) is a National level organization set up under Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. NOTTO will function as an apex centre for all India activities of coordination and networking for procurement and distribution of organ and tissues and registry for the same in the country.
MOHAN Foundation is the only body that conducts training of transplant coordinators in India. Since 2009, we have organized 31 training programs training close to 1000 transplant coordinators. In a recent amendment to the THOA (Transplantation of Human Organs Act 1994), hiring of a transplant coordinator was made mandatory in a transplant centre. This augurs a significant demand for trained transplant coordinators in the country.
MOHAN Foundation has been invited to partner with NOTTO in the process of developing a standardized national training curriculum and this training was the first step towards that process.
The 5 day training attracted 30 participants from across 19 private and government hospitals.
Rajasthan – A success story in the making
MOHAN Foundation began work in Rajasthan last year, a state completely new to organ donation. Health is a state subject in India and many states have yet to start the deceased organ donation program.
Strategic meetings with various stakeholders were held the whole of last year including the government, both private and government hospitals as well as NGOs working in the state - helping them understand the intricacies of a successful deceased donation program. Training programs were conducted with various groups (medical and para medical) on various topics and intense public awareness & sensitization was undertaken. The work received tremendously encouraging support from the Government and many of the meetings were presided by the Honorable Health Minister, Shri Rajendra Rathore.
A one week Transplant Coordinators’ Training was held at Jaipur from July 6 – 10, 2015. There were 72 participants from all over Rajasthan who were trained on grief counseling and other aspects of coordinating deceased organ donation.
Jaipur is now fast emerging as a ray of hope for many patients who are suffering from organ failure. This year the city has already done 6 cadaver donations, which enabled 9 kidney transplants, 1 heart transplant, 5 liver transplants and 12 corneal transplants. All the 5 livers were sent to Delhi through an efficiently created green corridor as Rajasthan still has to start a liver transplant program.
The heart transplant was the first successful cadaver heart transplant in the state of Rajasthan on August 1, 2015. The state is now gearing up for performing liver transplants.
Nationwide campaign on Organ Donation with Times of India
MOHAN Foundation partnered with The Times of India for the largest awareness and ‘signing up’ campaign in the country from August 1-13, 2015.
Times of India is the most widely read English newspaper in India with a readership of 7.643 million. This ranks the Times of India as the top English daily in India by readership.
The campaign aimed to educate the masses about Organ Donation (what is organ donation, what are myths surrounding organ donation, etc.) and encourage them to sign up as Organ Donors. MOHAN Foundation conducted various awareness sessions during the campaign in various schools, colleges and corporates, reaching out to close to 3000 people.
More than 100,000 people pledged to be organ donors during this campaign.
The campaign also saw the participation of the Honorable Health Minister, Shri J P Nadda in a round table where representatives of DGHS (Director General of Health Services) and NOTTO (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization) along with doctors from public as well private hospitals submitted their recommendations to Health Minister to promote organ donation and transplantation in India. The meeting was moderated by MOHAN Foundation.
Angels of Change – Volunteers for Organ Donation
MOHAN Foundation has launched a unique program called "Angels of Change" in which selected volunteers from schools and colleges are taken through a customised training module to enable them to undertake awareness initiatives on organ donation amongst various audiences. The objective of this program is to engage the student volunteers-duly sensitised and trained as agents of change and be effective in changing the mindset of people towards a complex issue like organ donation.
Last year, MOHAN Foundation (Delhi-NCR) undertook a pilot project with Tagore International School, New Delhi to create student volunteers for organ donation. A group of 25 students from grades 9 - 11 were shortlisted to be a part of this training. The students named the initiative “Outlive Yourself”
Weekly sessions over a period of a month were undertaken and these sessions included slide and audio-video presentations on organ donation and brain death, discussions, interactions with recipients/donor family members/medical experts and distribution of literature. Finally, the student volunteers were required to make practice presentations internally before making them to external audiences. Initially Foundation members accompanied them to these interactions and it was observed that after a month of extensive training the students had mastered enough information relevant to organ donation and had inculcated the confidence to take forward the cause of organ donation amongst their teachers, family members, fellow peers, neighbours and society as a whole.
This year nine volunteers have enrolled for the first batch of training and the training began In August.
All this is possible only with the support of generous donors like you who believe in our work and understand its significance. Raising funds for an abstract issue like organ donation is a challenge and therefore the few people who do come forward to support us are deeply valued and cherished.
Pallavi Kumar<
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Report for the quarter March –May 2015 – Creating foot soldiers for Organ donation
It was yet another hectic but exciting training quarter at the MOHAN Foundation. From December 2009 to May 2015, MOHAN Foundation has trained 837 transplant coordinators in different cities in India as well as Bangladesh. Their efforts have resulted in the retrieval of 3500 organs and tissues from across the country in the past five years. MOHAN Foundation’s transplant coordinators’ training programme is the only structured course that is being offered in South Asia.
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has now approached the Foundation to seek support in developing a nationwide curriculum on training transplant coordinators in the country and to also develop a module for Training of Trainers across all states.
A One-month training programme was held in May 2015 at MOHAN Foundation, Chennai. It had both national and international representation. There were 26 participants from various parts of the country (Chennai, Kolkata, Mangalore, Nagpur), and one participant from Botswana. It was a mixed group of nurses, social workers and dialysis technologists. In addition, a heart transplant recipient also participated in the training so that she could ‘give back’ to the society. There was also a research fellow (Thomas J. Watson Fellowship) from USA who was there to observe and learn from the programme. Her project was about the donation of different parts of the human body and to look at the psychological and cultural factors that influence donation patterns in different countries. She spent six months in South Africa and shared some of her perspectives with the other participants.
At the valedictory function, the participants received their completion certificates from Dr. J. Radhakrishnan, IAS, Principal Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of Tamil Nadu. Also present was, Dr. J. Amalorpavanathan, Convenor, Cadaver Transplant Programme, Govt. of Taml Nadu.
A One week Transplant Coordinator's Training Programme was held from April 7-11, 2015 in Gurgaon. The training was hosted by Fortis Memorial Research Institute – a leading private hospital and transplant centre. The training got an overwhelming response and close to 60 delegates of varied profiles - transplant coordinators, doctors, nurses, medical social workers, dialysis technicians, and senior managers from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal, Haryana and Delhi-NCR attended the training.
Apart from health care professionals who attended the training, few NGOs that have undertaken to work with the cause of organ donation, also attended the training such as ORGAN India (Delhi-NCR), Shine India Foundation (Kota) and Jodhpur School of Public Health (Jodhpur).
Dr Neena Verma, who lost her young son Utkarsh last year and went on to donate his corneas, has set up a foundation in his name to promote organ and tissue donation. She also attended the training programme. In her words, “This training program is very thoughtfully designed to give a comprehensive understanding of various aspects of Transplant Coordination and Organ Donation. Various sessions on medical (technical), social, psychological, legal aspects prepared the participants well to start conducting their donor counseling, awareness, and transact coordination work right after attending the course. A diverse group of medical and other experts shared highly sensitive information in a thoughtful and engaging way. Some technical snags hampered session on kidney transplant, which were handled by course directors with deep sensitivity and group intelligence.”
More than 50 eminent speakers and experienced professionals from the medical/non-medical fraternity conducted and chaired sessions.
Besides the session on technical aspects of organ donation and transplantation, visits to the Intensive Care Unit were organized for the participants. Every day a batch of 10 delegates would visit the ICU for practical reinforcement of the teachings, especially donor identification and maintenance of a brain dead donor.
Dr. N.S. Dharamshaktu, Additional DG (Director general of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) gave away certificates to all the delegates who successfully completed the course.
“The training has really helped me and my institution a lot. Although we have not yet started on deceased donor organ transplant, but the overall experience and learning has been great. All the confusions with legal documentation, confusions with flow and process of deceased organ donation have been cleared. It’s been a wonderful experience all together. Thank you all for making transplant coordinators of next level” - Dr Anupam Sharma, Consultant Emergency, Alchemist Hospital, Gurgaon
0n 6th May 2015 MOHAN Foundation organized a one day TOT (Training of Trainers) for the police personnel on their role in Brain Death and Organ Donation. This was done in association with Police Training College, Chennai. The aim of the programme was to make them understand the role which they play in the concept of organ donation. 43 police personnel attended the training. The trainers demonstrated the protocols followed in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in a Medico Legal Case and highlighted the role of police during inquest, request for post-mortem and handing over of the donor body.
Similar efforts to sensitize the police personnel were made in other parts of the country as well. Awareness talks on organ donation and the role of the police were conducted at the Sadar Police Station (Sector 38, Gurgaon) and at the Police Head Quarter, Chandigarh on March 28 and May 7, 2015 respectively.
In a unique initiative, MFJCF (MOHAN Foundation Jaipur Citizen Forum) organized a special program ‘Navjeevan Ka Ankur’ to felicitate the state’s deceased organ donors’ and their families at SMS Hospital auditorium on April 18, 2015. Mr. Rajendra Singh Rathore, Health Minister, Govt. of Rajasthan was the chief guest of the same. In this program, tributes were paid to organ donors. Addressing the occasion, Mr. Rajendra Singh Rathore, Health Minister (Rajasthan) expressed his gratitude towards the family members of deceased organ donors and appreciated various awareness programs in this regard.
The highlight of the quarter was “Samarthan” - A musical Evening to create awareness on organ donation at Zorba, New Delhi on May 2, 2015.
The evening was graced with many distinguished personalities and supporters of the cause and made memorable by the beautiful music played by the Zoya Band.
There was also a sign up session where people came forward and pledged their organs.
Close to 300 people attended the event to demonstrate their support and passion for the cause.
The Foundation would like to thank all its supporters on Global Giving for their support as we carry forward this much needed mandate of training. We will continue to look forward to your support as we move forward. Please let others know about our work
This was an exciting quarter at the MOHAN Foundation with a training program every month and close to 100 Transplant Coordinators accessed.
In the month of December, MOHAN Foundation collaborated with ZTCC (Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre, Mumbai) to conduct its 17th One Week Transplant Coordinators’ Training Programme from 8-12 December, 2014 at KEM Hospital, Mumbai. The ZTTC is a registered body formed by the Appropriate Authority by a government resolution in the year 2001. It consists of CEO of all the recognized hospitals, NGOs, Experts in the transplant surgery of various organs, prominent citizens of the city.
There were 34 participants from various parts of the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
It was extremely heartening to see the participation ofthe parents of a young heart transplant recipient, Hvovi. As a unique gesture in support for the cause, they enrolled in the training to learn in detail about the nuances of transplant coordination and helping families of the deceased during the process of organ donation. Amidst Indian conditions where the government strictly restricts recipient and donor families from interacting with each other, the couple felt this was the best way to express their gratitude to the donor who saved their daughter’s life.
They said-
“The most emotionally draining part of the whole experience was the wait for word from the hospital regarding availability of a suitable heart. As each day dawned, we were filled with hope that today would be the day we would receive the news we so eagerly awaited. As each day drew to an end without that much awaited phone call from the hospital, we were filled with despair. Would it be too late for her by the time a heart became available?”
Likewise, a kidney transplant recipient who was looking forward to taking up the role of a transplant coordinator also participated in the training.
The quarter turned out to mark many such firsts for MOHAN Foundation as we trained 18 participants for the first time in the state of Odisha at the 18th One Week Transplant Coordinators’ Training Programme held at the Department of Nephrology, Urology and Renal Transplant Unit, SCB Medical College & Hospital, Cuttack from February 16 -20, 2015. Odisha has been gradually emerging as a pro organ donation state gaining from the example of the adjacent southern states. The legal, socio-cultural, ethical aspects of organ donation and transplantation, logistics, transplant registry were covered as well as detailed sessions on counseling donor families were conducted in this workshop.
Using the programme as an ideal opportunity, a CME (Continuing Medical Education) on brain death and deceased organ donation was held for the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISSCM), Bhubaneswar chapter on the evening of February 16, 2015 where MOHAN Foundation Faculty was invited.
On January 30, 2015 senior transplant coordinators met in Chennai for a consultative meeting. Of the 47 participants, 30 were transplant coordinators with experiences ranging from 3 years to 15 years. This is the second such national meeting that has been held to address the learning needs and challenges faced by senior transplant coordinators in the country. The meeting also served as an opportunity to felicitate significant contributions made by Transplant Coordinators.
On the same day, 2015 MOHAN Foundation signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), UK. The objective of this understanding will be to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing between the two organizations with the aim of increasing the organ donation rate in India and the United Kingdom (UK). The educational material shared by the NHSBT in the past has been used regularly during the transplant coordinators’ training workshops till date and this collaboration gives us the access to more such material. The MoU was reaffirmed in UK on the February 26, 2015 in London at the House of Lords.
MOHAN Foundation had begun its work in the state of Rajasthan early last year, conducting training programs and sensitizing the medical fraternity. We witnessed another historic moment as the first deceased donation took place in the city of Jaipur took place. A 6 year old, little boy from the rural area got a head injury and was undergoing treatment in Mahatama Gandhi Hospital, Jaipur. The transplant coordinator trained by MOHAN Foundation who counseled the parents of the child said it was the toughest challenge he had to face. Nevertheless the couple agreed to donate and the child’s kidneys and liver helped save three lives. This comes as an affirmation to MOHAN Foundations presence in Jaipur in the previous months.
Though this turned out to be a very eventful quarter we are still working hard towards training as many people possible. Health is a state subject in India; newer states are now showing interest and therefore will require training and hand holding. The steady support of our contributors at Global Giving has proved as a constant motivation in this endeavor. We are grateful for the same and hope that we are continued to be supported in the days to come.
MOHAN Foundation conducted a Transplant Coordinators’ training workshop from November 16 - 21, 2014 in Bengaluru, Karnataka. This program which was facilitated by the funds raised through the GlobalGiving project was organized in collaboration with the ZCCK (Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka for Transplantation). The foundation is indebted to the spontaneous willingness of the generous supporters who have helped a total of 20 transplant coordinators to be successfully trained through this workshop.
The faculty comprised of a highly enthusiastic team of doctors and transplant coordinators from BGS Global Hospitals-Bengaluru, Victoria Hospital-Bengaluru, MOHAN Foundation, ZCCK, and Nayana Jyothi-Bengaluru. The training consisted of sessions of role plays and lectures meticulously put together by the foundation to help the transplant coordinators play the given role in a hospital setting with the required knowhow.
The participants were a motivated and lively group that did not flinch from asking tough questions to the faculty. One of the participants Ms. Shruthi J., ICU Staff Nurse from Victoria Hospital had a unique way of showing her appreciation for the transplant coordinators from MOHAN Foundation – Mr. K. Prakash and Ms. Akshatha. She had fashioned crowns for them and they were felicitated as ‘Angels of Organ Donation’ by Dr. Sonal Asthana, Head of the Department, Hepatobiliary Surgery and Multi-organ Transplantation, BGS Global Hospital.
At the valedictory session Dr. N.K. Venkataramana Vice Chairman and Chief Neurosurgeon, BGS Global Hospitals presented certificates to all the participants. He urged them to practice whatever they had learnt in the training programme and make it ‘viral’. Mr. Satish Gadennavar, ICU Staff Nurse from Victoria Hospital and Ms. Divya S., Staff Nurse from BGS Global Hospitals shared their feedback.
“We found the course very useful and beneficial. We learnt how to motivate families for organ donation. We will educate the community and make them aware about this concept."
-Mr. SatishGadennavar, ICU Staff Nurse, Victoria Hospital, Bengaluru
The training program was really helpful for me to get complete understanding on Cadaver and Live donor organ transplantation. As i have been working more than three years in corporate hospitals as a transplant coordinator, i have organised more than 70 cadaver organ transplantation and 50 Living Donor Liver Transplantation. The training program from MOHAN Foundation is really helpful for me in the field of organ donation
-Mr. Mukesh, Global Hospitals
"It was a good training programme. We all want to become 'Angels of Organ Donation'."
-Ms. Divya S., Staff Nurse, BGS Global Hospitals, Bengaluru
This Workshop also enabled MOHAN Foundation reach the mark of training 700 transplant coordinators since it started the training program 3 years ago. Each one of these 700 transplant coordinators have been angels for numerous people in need of a life saving organ.
In this regard, Mr. Prakash, a recent trainee, recalls the case of a young engineering diploma holder, Mr R. Loganathan who gave life to 5 patients. When Prakash spoke to the donor’s mother she said that he was a kind, humble and helpful person who was loved and cherished by the entire village and even though she was profoundly shocked, she decided to donate her son’s organs thereby saving half a dozen lives. Prakash recalls that during the instances in which he approached the family he was surer about dealing with the situation as he had attended the training which had simulated similar conditions.
The training session organized in Bengaluru was the first of many more sessions which will be organized to train a total of 100 transplant coordinators who shall help augment the deceased donation rates in their respective hospitals. The foundation also looks forward to receiving feedback from the supporters with suggestions and ideas to be incorporated in the forthcoming sessions.
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