Telangana organ donation system leaves donor families, recipients without long-term support

Organ donor families and transplant recipients in Telangana are seeking greater financial support, with private hospitals earning substantial revenues from transplantation. Activists have urged the State government to provide assistance to donor families and long-term support to economically weaker recipients.

Hyderabad: When a working-class family gives consent to donate the organs of a brain-dead relative, they walk away with heavy hearts, thank-you notes and empty hands. Meanwhile, corporate hospitals quietly pocket the multi-crore rewards generated by the organ donation pipeline.

Under state-backed infrastructure and frameworks like Jeevandan, where private hospitals conduct 96 percent of brain-dead declarations, altruism by grieving families is systematically converted into profits for private hospitals. It is not just donors; even economically weaker patients who undergo organ transplantation under Aarogyasri lack access to long-term support.

Estimates show that a single multi-organ donor harvested in a corporate hospital translates to medical bills ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 80 lakh. Strangely, except for yearly felicitations on World Organ Donation Day, none of the profits generated from transplant surgeries are shared with the families by private hospitals.

Countrywide, the organ donation industry is currently worth Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 5,200 crore. In Hyderabad, depending on the volume of organ donors, the total market value of the sector for private hospitals ranges from Rs 100 crore to Rs 150 crore, a figure that does not even account for multiple costly follow-up visits patients make throughout their lives.

For poor and middle-class patients who do manage to receive a donor organ, often through state-backed welfare schemes like Aarogyasri, the long-term maintenance is a steep climb. Private hospitals reap massive procedural packages ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for a kidney and upwards of Rs 20 lakh to Rs 35 lakh for a liver; there is zero institutional safety net for the lifelong cost of survival.

Without such institutional interventions (even if they are token in nature), the State’s organ donation framework will continue to reward corporate balance sheets while leaving both the grieving families of donors and struggling recipients entirely on their own.

Organ donor families, recipients need long-term financial support

Founder of Hyderabad-based Cheyutha Foundation, Bhagwan Reddy, who has been demanding long-term financial support for organ recipients and families of donors, points out that the Telangana government can simply follow the example of the neighbouring Telugu State.

“The Organs and Tissue Act of India makes it clear that donor organs should not be traded for profits or financial compensation. And yet, as a goodwill gesture, the Andhra Pradesh government extends Rs 1 lakh to family members of brain-dead or living related persons. Apart from that, poor patients who undergo organ transplantation also receive a pension of Rs 10,000 per month for sustenance. A similar initiative makes a lot of sense in Telangana,” Bhagwan Reddy said.

A token amount of Rs 1 lakh or depositing a portion of the profits by private hospitals in a trust dedicated to the well-being of organ donor families and recipient aftercare could easily bridge this massive equity gap.

Telangana’s organ donation system: Key figures

• Private hospitals in Telangana captured 96 percent of the 205 total deceased donors in 2025

• Government hospitals accounted for just 8 donors

• A single multi-organ donor harvested in a corporate private hospital translates to cumulative medical bills ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 80 lakh

• Estimated annual revenue pool up to Rs 157.8 crore or Rs 160 crore for hospitals in Hyderabad

• Countrywide, sector is valued at roughly Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 5,200 crore annually

• Due to huge returns, private hospitals have dedicated Centre of Excellence for organ donations

• Private hospitals must make medical bills Rs zero for families that are donating organs