Organ transplantation in Tamil Nadu

Another major stimulus for organ transplantation awareness in the state is said to be a particular incident in 2008 in which the physician parents of a 15-year-old motorcycle accident victim, donated their son's organs.[3] On 20 September 2008, the youth named Hithendran had a motorcycle accident.[7] He sustained several injuries and was declared brain dead after being admitted to Apollo Hospital in Teynampet. After not finding any improvement in his condition for three days, his parents decided to donate his organs.[8]

Hithendran's functioning organs, including heart, liver, kidney, corneas and bone marrow, were donated.[7] A 9-year-old from Bangalore in need of heart was found in the city's Frontier Lifeline Hospital in Mogappair. The heart was harvested in a record time of 11 minutes.[9] The surgeons, state, and city police coordinated to transport the heart swiftly. With traffic cleared and signals turned green, the 45-minute journey took only 11 minutes for the ambulance.[7][8][9] After a successful transplant, the recipient of the heart lived for a year post-transplant.[10] At least seven other people benefited from Hithendran's organ donations.[9]

This generated widespread attention and support for deceased organ donation in the state.[6] People began to enquire about organ donation and brain death more after the incident, which became known as the 'Hithendran Effect'.[8] A memorial service for Hithendran was arranged at the Raj Bhavan afterwards by the governor, Surjit Singh Barnala.[9] A street in his hometown, Thirukalukumdram, was also named after him.[8][11]

Tamil Nadu made certification of brain death mandatory, becoming the first Indian state to do so.[3] It also established clear procedures on declaration of brain death and enlarged the panel of members who could certify brain death.[14] This was considered a major measure as it enhances the chances of deceased organ donations. The state authority has created a centralised waiting list system to ensure proper allocation of donor organs.[6]

The state has also created green corridors, routes that are cleared out for an ambulance carrying harvested organs to ensure their delivery at the destination in the shortest time possible.[2][15] For this, the hospitals involved in a transplantation, city traffic authorities, and in certain cases airport authorities, collaborate to transport an organ from one hospital to the other.[2][16] The first use of a green corridor took place in July 2014, when a hospital and police coordinated to transport a heart from one hospital to another in half the usual time in Chennai.[2][17]

The state also made it mandatory for hospitals conducting transplants to register with the state. To ensure that every available organ is utilised, guidelines for non-transplant centres were set.[3] According to the member secretary of TRANSTAN, R Kanthimathy, only Tamil Nadu uses "skin, tissues, kidney, liver and heart, among others for transplant, while most others states focus on heart and kidneys".[18] Sunil Shroff of MOHAN Foundation had said that their NGO used to work with six to eight hospitals on organ transplants. But after the government coordination, this number went up to 30.[3]

In 2019, TRANSTAN compiled post-transplant data of patients for the past ten years which outlined patient health and survival rates.[19] However, this data has not been made public.[20]

On 25 March 2020, organ transplants across the state were halted due to the coronavirus pandemic in Tamil Nadu.[21]