AP hospitals unwilling to arrange organ donation to TS patients

Hyderabad, April 12, 2015: Government-run Jeevan Dan Scheme in Telangana has run into trouble with Hospitals in AP not willing to come forward to donate organs to the needy in TS hospitals. After the bifurcation, the scheme was also divided between AP and Telangana with 20 hospitals in Hyderabad and 10 hospitals in Nellore, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam being identified for the purpose for Telangana and AP respectively. As there is no heart and liver transplant unit in AP hospitals, most of the patients are registered with the Hyderabad hospitals but the hospitals in AP are unwilling to coordinate with Hyderabad hospitals and send the organs, reports said quoting a top official looking after the Jeevan Dan scheme in Telangana. One more problem is both states do not have hospitals along the Vijayawada-Hyderabad highway to harvest organs of accident victims and donate them to the needy. Because of this, organs of many accident victims are going waste, reports said. At a time when many families are coming forward to donate organs of their brain dead members to the needy, lack of coordination between AP and TS hospitals is threatening the very objective of the scheme. In Telangana, there are 670 patients waiting now for kidney transplantation under the Jeevan Dan scheme with the Minister A. Chandulal topping the list of people anxiously looking for a kidney donor. The Jeevan Dan scheme began in 2013 and so far 117 persons have donated their 520 organs for the needy patients.