It's Gold

The 50th issue of the Indian Transplant Newsletter is here!

Will we ever do a hand transplant in India, we wondered, when we carried the news of the first hand transplant in the world performed in September 1998 in France and in the US in January 1999. It was the year 2000 and it was the fifth issue of the Indian Transplant Newsletter (ITN). Another important question for us then was – would the ITN be around to cover it, if it did happen. The answer to both is a resounding YES! The news of the first successful hand transplant in India performed in January 2015 at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi was covered in the 43rd issue of the ITN.

The Indian Transplant Newsletter started its journey almost 20 years ago in an attempt to give a credible voice to the organ donation and transplantation programme. It was a time when the word 'transplantation' was almost a pariah and deceased (then called cadaver) organ donation was looked upon as a non starter in India. We started off with just four pages, and now the 50th issue is much more substantial! We have carried soul-stirring stories of deceased donors and their courageous families, experiences from transplant recipients, doctors, nurses and transplant coordinators who have championed the cause, and scientific features. The ITN has brought into focus landmark conferences and meetings, and advances in organ and tissue donation and transplantation in India and abroad. It has debated and reflected on ethical, legal and religious issues in organ donation and transplantation. And very importantly, it has become a trusted source for statistics on deceased organ donation and transplantation in India.

The 50th issue is a special issue in more ways than one. It has a truly international flavor with invited articles from Dr. Philip Thomas, USA, Prof. Gurch Randhawa, UK and Dr. Campbell Fraser, Australia. Dr. Thomas pays a moving personal tribute to Thomas Starzl, the father of transplantation. Prof. Randhawa and Dr. Fraser write on two highly debated topics – faith and organ donation and the impact of deceased organ donation on organ trafficking.

There is also a moving article from a recipient family – the family of MOHAN Foundation's beloved trustee, Late Mrs. Malathi Venkatesan who was a kidney transplant recipient. Her husband Mr. S. V. Venkatesan and daughter Aparna Venkatesan have shared their thoughts as caregivers which offer sensitive insights into the psyche of patients with end stage organ disease and their families. We take you on a trip down memory lane with highlights from the past 49 issues, especially the early years when we documented many 'firsts' in this challenging programme.

With this issue we kick-start a series on 'Difficult Donations.' We invite transplant coordinators to share similar experiences with us so that others may 'live and learn' through this platform. We also are carrying the feedback from a volunteer of MOHAN Foundation's unique Angels of Change Volunteer programme. 'The Interview' features an intrepid transplant surgeon from South Korea who worked in Bangladesh, but is now contributing to the successful deceased organ donation and transplantation programme in his country (South Korea had an organ donation rate of 11 per million population in 2016). And finally, we celebrate 20 years of MOHAN Foundation's existence and 15 years of the Hyderabad chapter in this the 50^th issue of the Indian Transplant Newsletter.

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Dr. Navin Jayakumar and to Mr. A.L.Senthil Kumar (Creatars Company) for their immense contribution to this issue.

We look forward to your continued support and patronage as we aim at hitting a century!

Dr. Sunil Shroff & Dr. Sumana Navin