Experts suggested keeping an organ transplant co-coordinator in every hospital, having Intensive Care Unit (ICU) services, for persuading the patients’ attendants to donate organs of clinically dead persons.
“Organ transplant co-coordinator is essential in all hospitals which have ICU services to provide a clear idea to the attendants of clinically dead patients about organ donation and help saving lives of other people,” President of the Society of Organ Transplant Bangladesh Prof Dr Harun-Ur-Rashid told media on Saturday.
Rashid, also the founder President of Kidney Foundation Bangladesh, said in modern countries about 80 to 90 per cent people get new lives through cadaveric organ donations but here (in Bangladesh) it is yet to start and the role of a transplant coordinator is crucial for it”.
“The coordinator would not be involved with the transplantation process. He/she would be from social services and capable of providing a clear idea to the attendants and make them agree to donate the organs of their clinically dead patients,” he said.
Emphasizing on creating awareness on posthumous donation, Vice President of Sandhani Central Committee Dr Golam Shahriar said, “The more donors available the more awareness will be in society and transplant coordinator can play a vital role to increase posthumous donor.”
Vice-Chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Prof Dr Kamrul Hasan said, “There is a huge gap between the demand for organs and their supply. The demand drastically outstrips the number of organ donors. The role of transplant coordinator in hospitals with ICU services is very important to minimize the gap.”
However, many people feared that the emotion, values and religious debates could appear as bigger challenges for the organ donation campaign in Bangladesh.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has endorsed the campaign as the basic principles of Islam always uphold humanitarian causes.
Islamic scholar Maulana Abdullah Al-Maruf referred to the decision of the OIC’s Islamic Council which ruled that one can donate his or her organs before or after death for the welfare of human being.
“A man, however, cannot sale his organs according to Islamic principles but he can donate . . . this is because human organs are highly precious in the eyes of Islam and they cannot be regarded as commercially tradable objects,” he said.
The cadaveric or posthumous donation of one’s four vital organs could offer a second chance of life to five others.
A person can save lives of five others simultaneously by donating organs after death — one’s two kidneys could offer life to two people and his liver, lung and heart can save three others, experts said.
