A one week Transplant Coordinators' Training Programme was held in Nagpur from 11th to 15th February 2013. The training programme was organized by MOHAN Foundation in collaboration with Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC), Nagpur. The person instrumental in bringing the training programme to Nagpur was Dr. Ravi Wankhede, Expert member of ZTCC and also member of MOHAN Foundation. The venue of the training was Matru Sewa Sangh Institute of Social Work, Bajaj Nagar, Nagpur.

Participants preparing public education posters during a group activity

Dr. Sujata Patwardhan, Secretary, ZTCC being felicitated by Dr. Sunil Shroff (Left to Right - Dr. Sumana Navin, Dr. Sunil Shroff, Dr. Sujata Patwardhan, Dr. Ravi Wankhede)

Transplant Coordinators’ Training Programme – Nagpur, February 2013

The programme commenced with a brief inaugural function which was attended by Dr.Waghmare, President of ZTCC, Dr. Vibhawari Dani, Vice President of ZTCC, Dr. Rajaram Powar, Dean of Govt. Medical College & Secretary ZTCC, Dr. Sudhir Gupta, Prof & HOD, Dept. of Gastroenterology, Govt. Medical College & Super-speciality Hospital and State Appropriate Authority representative, Dr. Viresh Gupta, Nephrologist and Expert member of ZTCC, Dr. Charu, Member, ZTCC and Dr. John Menachery, Principal, Matru Sewa Sangh Institute of Social Work, and the team from MOHAN Foundation.

The participants comprised doctors, nurses, administrators and social workers from both the government and corporate sector. A total of 33 participants attended the training and showed great enthusiasm and motivation in taking the deceased organ donation and transplantation programme forward in Nagpur. At present, there are five transplant centres in the city carrying out about 50 living donor kidney transplants a year. 

In the training programme, the legal, medical, religious and ethical aspects of both living and deceased organ donation and transplantation were covered. Dr. Ravi Wankhede spoke on grief counselling with the MOHAN Foundation team sharing their experiences through in-depth case studies on counselling families about deceased organ donation. Films on brain death identification & certification, public education, religion & organ donation and kidney retrieval were screened. The participants were actively involved through role plays, case study discussions and group activities like preparing checklists and creating public education posters.

There was great support from the expertlocal faculty in conducting the training. The faculty members were Dr. Viresh Gupta, Dr. Sudhir Gupta, Dr. Sanjay Kolte, Dr. D.S. Ookalkar, Dr. Dinesh Kabra, Dr. Amol Sagdeo, Dr. Ashwini Kumar Khandekar and Dr. Prakash Khetan. Dr. Sujata Patwardhan, Prof. of Urology, KEM Hospital, Mumbai and Secretary, ZTCC, Mumbai and Dr. Ravi Mohanka, Liver transplant surgeon, Medanta – The Medicity, Delhi were also there to share of their expertise. The MOHAN Foundation team comprised Dr. Sunil Shroff, Mrs. Lalitha Raghuram, Dr. Sumana Navin, Mr. K. Raghuram, Dr. Hemal Kanvinde and Mrs. Sujatha Niranjan.

The valedictory function was held on 15th February 2013 after a post-training evaluation. Prof. Dr. Mahesh Yenkie, Pro- Vice Chancellor and Dr. Bhau Daydar, NSS Coordinator of Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University were invited for the function. The Pro-Vice Chancellor presented the completion certificates to all the participants.

Editor's note – The Transplant Coordinators' Training Programme is supported by the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust, Mumbai.