Medicos organize organ donation campaign at RG Kar Medical college

Kolkata: A six-month long campaign is being flagged off by the South Asian Medical Students Association(SAMSA) on Organ Donation, as an effort by medical students to generate awareness on the issue, in the state. The campaign was flagged off on November 14, at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH).

Titled 'Donor Cup', the campaign is meant to involve medical students, to improve the dismal state of affairs in organ donation in the state. As against the five cadaver organ donations in 2016, this year has witnessed just one.

"Our objective is to raise awareness about organ donation among the medical fraternity. We will be having a host of programs, which include discussing issues like brain death declaration, Transplant of Human Organ Act (THOA), grief counselling and address social-religious barriers," said Vice President, Internal Affairs, Dr Rishav Mukherjee, SAMSA.

Covering all medical colleges over a span of 6 months, in various phases, the campaign will include hosting of various inter-college competitions, with organ donation as the theme. Story writing, Poster making, Photography, are some of the competitions through which SAMSA intends to generate awareness among the future doctors. Prizes would be given for outstanding performances.

"So far, mostly NGOs did organ donation awareness. Now, since the medical students have taken it upon themselves, the drive will be much more effective. It is a great good initiative and ROTTO will support it in whatever way we can," said Joint Director, ROTTO, (Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant organization), Dr Arpita Ray Chaudhury.

The program will be opened with a talk by Dr Suguta Dasgupta, In-charge, Critical Care unit of RGKRMCH. Dasgupta will talk about brain death declaration; while socio-religious barriers about organ donation will be taken up by Swami Suparananda Maharaj of Ramakrishna Mission.

"It is a good initiative. Inculcating consciousness about brain death and organ donation while they are still medical students will definitely be of great help when they become doctors or consultants," said Dr Sugata Dasgupta, RGKMCH, reports TOI.

In an earlier story done by Medical Dialogues, a mention was made of how the paucity of cadavers in the past was leading to overcrowding on medical college dissection tables and students were not being able to learn through practical examination of the bodies. In some cases, students had been seen passing out of colleges without any hands-on experience on dead bodies, as part of learning, due to a shortage of cadavers.

In an attempt to overcome these shortages the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (Rotto) has suggested that Organ donation made part of MBBS study curriculum to the West Bengal University of Health Sciences (WBUHS).

Read Also: Include Organ donation in MBBS curriculum: ROTTO asks University