Telangana number one in India in organ donations, transplants

Telangana government is developing a state-of-the-art centralised State organ transplantation hub with eight high-end operation theatres at Gandhi Hospital with a cost of Rs 30 crore

Hyderabad: Consistent efforts to promote brain-dead organ donations and measures taken in the last 18 months to encourage government hospitals to take up expensive transplant surgeries have started to yield results with Telangana emerging as number one in the country for deceased organ donations and transplants.

Based on the data for organ donation and transplantation from National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the top five Indian States for deceased organ donation and donor transplants in 2022 was Telangana followed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

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Interestingly, Telangana outperformed a State like Tamil Nadu, which has a highly developed and mature ecosystem of organ donation and transplantation. In fact, deceased donor organ transplantation in Tamil Nadu started in 2008 with the launch of Tamil Nadu Cadaver Transplant Programme while Telangana launched the Jeevandan organ donation initiative in 2013.

Government initiatives

In the coming years, senior health officials in Hyderabad believe that the organ donation initiative will become even more robust and accessible for poor people, which will further strengthen the numero uno status of Telangana in deceased organ donations and transplantations. “The State government has consistently been supportive of the organ donation initiative. In the last year or so several measures have been launched that will enable government hospitals to conduct transplants on a larger scale,” says Dr G Swarnalatha, Head, Nephrology, NIMS and in-charge, Jeevandan.

To ensure proper infrastructure support, the State government is developing a state-of-the-art centralised State organ transplantation hub with eight high-end operation theatres at Gandhi Hospital with a cost of Rs 30 crore. Health Minister T Harish Rao also asked government hospitals to prepare standard guidelines and protocols to declare critically ill patients as brain dead.