Mohan Foundation's activity in India to educate Indians about Organ Donation

1. The inspiring tale of a social entrepreneur Professor and head of the department, Urology and Renal Transplantation at the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute D r Sunil Shroff

6. Dr Sunil Shroff with his team .

10. Mohan Foundation was formed on the January 12, 1997, al though the idea was conceived in 1995-96

12. Honouring the donor families Dr. Sunil Shroff was involved with the first organ donation in 1996 at Ramachandra Medical College. This was a 12-year-old boy who died of snake bite. Dr. Sunil transplanted boy’s kidneys into two ladies suffering from kidney failure. After that, there were many organ donations After that, Mohan Foundation formed a network -- Indian Network of Organ Sharing -- so that when there are multiple organs available in a hospital, these organs could be distributed in a fair and ethical manner to those who are in need of them, that is, wherever the needy patients are. Now, Mohan Foundation has branches in Mumbai, Visakhapatanam and Coimbatore, but requests are pouring in from many cities -- like Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, and Solapur. In 2002, Mohan Foundation started an office in Hyderabad when some hospitals there came to know about the work we were doing in Chennai.

13. Counseling is most important Once Mohan Foundation comes to know that there is a brain dead person in a hospital, and two doctors certify that he is indeed brain dead (two certifications, with a gap of six hours, are required), our counselors start talking to the family. The most important thing in organ donation is counseling the family. When they go through one of the most traumatic moments of their life, foundation counselors have to start talking. Sometimes counsellors get shouted at, abused and even beaten. But Mohan Foundation counsellors are trained to talk in the right way. Mohan Foundation is the only organisation in the whole of Asia that has training programmes for counsellors. So far we it has trained 105 counsellors in the country. Once a family agrees for organ donation, foundation counsellors remain with them throughout the organ donation and even after that. Organs are given to only the patients in the registry and it is done based strictly on the waiting list. There are almost 900 patients waiting for kidneys. Same is the case with liver and heart too. Mohan Foundation then call the different hospitals where these patients are. It is very transparent and done in the most ethical way so that the organs go to the right patient.

14. Mohan Foundation is working with the government of India and many other states, trying to fill the gaps so that more and more people come forward for organ donation. Most of it’s recommendations to the government of India have been accepted. Mohan Foundation, as an NGO, have done 500 organ donations from which 1,500 organs have come. In India, we are doing only 0.08 per million organ donation rate, and we are a country 1.1 billion people. If we do 1 per million rate, we will have 1,100 donors. If we have 1,100 donors, there will be 2,200 kidneys, 1,100 hearts, livers, etc. Spain has 35 per million organ donation. Developing countries like Greece, Turkey, etc have 3-4 per million donations. Why can't we do a little more? The aim at Mohan Foundation is to go pan-India and try and increase the rate to 1 per million. In Tamil Nadu, Mohan Foundation has managed to do 1 per million.