MOHAN Foundation has been supporting the cause of deceased organ donation since 1997. Over the years the foundation has been involved in more than 200 successful organ donations and it has found that trained transplant coordinators are crucial to the success of the cause.

MOHAN Foundation has been actively lobbying for some years now with the government to make a legal provision for appointing Transplant Coordinators and its efforts have finally borne fruit. The Goverment of India in its recent gazette entitled THE TRANSPLANTATION OF HUMAN ORGANS RULES, 1995 (GSR NO. 51(E), dr. 4-2-1995) [As ame nded vide GS R 571(E), dt.31-7-2008] has made transplant coor dinat or nominat ion mandat ory before a hospital is registered as a transplant hospital. This would mean that any one of the 300 hospitals applying for renewal of its license would need to have a trained transplant coordinator in place.

MOHAN Foundation as part of its support services conducts Transplant Coordinators' Training Programmes (one week, one month, three months and six months).

The programme involves training social workers, medical and paramedical staff in counselling families of 'brain dead' patients to donate organs and coordinating the entire process of organ donation, retrieval and transplantation. They are trained in all aspects of counselling with intense one-onone role play by very experienced transplant coordinators drawn from across the country. This strengthens the trainees' abilities to go back and counsel the families of 'brain dead' patients independently. In addition to counselling, they learn the importance of working within narrow timeframes and linking with recipient hospitals, the forensic department and the police (in medico-legal cases) to ensure that organs are retrieved optimally and the body handed over to the family with respect and on time.

The first full-fledged one-month induction course to train transplant coordinators was launched in Chennai in December 2009. The 11 transplant coordinators who were trained came from diverse work milieus – the government health sector, the corporate health sector and NGOs – but the response was extremely positi ve and enthusiastic. Expe r t s in the f i e ld of organ donation and tran splan tation were part of the faculty and the participants had a chance to debate, discuss and clarify various issues with them.

At the end of the course, every participant was in a position to create a roadmap for initiating the organ donation programme in his or her hospital/city/ region and work as the key resource person to spearhead transplant-related activities. The course also succeeded in creating a strong network amongst the coordinators, which will help take the organ donation movement forward as a whole.