While medical colleges across the country are
struggling to meet shortage of cadavers, city colleges are turning away donors'
bodies. Lack of infrastructure to preserve the bodies is the reason that
colleges like NHL and Sola give while refusing to accept the donations. LG and
BJ medical colleges accept bodies, provided it is brought during office hours.
Ushmaben Shah, a 79-year-old cancer patient who
breathed her last on May 22, 2015, wanted to donate her body to benefit medical
students.But this noble approach hit a roadblock when medical colleges refused
to take her body citing several excuses.
The family members approached NHL Medical College but
they refused to accept it, saying they did not take bodies of cancer patients.
REJECTING DONATIONS
According to rules, a medical college can refuse to
accept the body of a patient who suffered from contagious or communicable
diseases like HIV, tuberculosis or hepatitis as it would put the students or
technicians handling it at risk. However, cancer is not an infectious disease.
Helpless family members then contacted an NGO that
works to create awareness about organ donation.Kaushal Shah of Shatayu said,
“When we receive calls from donors, we contact the nearest medical college. As
NHL medical college was the one closest to the family's location, we contacted
them around 8 pm. We were surprised when they refused to accept the body. First
they refused on the ground that Ushmaben was a cancer patient. Following
repeated requests, they said the college did not have tank to preserve the
body.“
After trying for hours to convince the staff, a
family doctor at the hospital accepted the body which will now be used for
research purpose. “After struggling for three hours, Ushmaben's body was
finally accepted around 10 pm,“ said Parth Shah, a member of the family.
Sharing another incident, Kaushal said that another
family had approached Sola medical college in February to donate a body. “The
college rejected the body due to space crunch.Finally, the family members
cremated it,“ he added.
COLLEGE RESPONSE
To confirm the allegations, this Mirror
correspondent, posing as the kin of a dying patient keen on donating her body,
approached medical colleges.Their response was dumbfounding.
At NHL Medical College, Dr Kanan Shah of anatomy
department said, “We are not accepting any bodies currently as the tank where
we preserve them is full. There is no space to preserve the bodies so donate
the body to BJ Medical College.“
Dr Hrishikesh Jadav, head of anatomy department at
Sola Medical College, said, “We have some problem here as the capacity to
accept bodies has filled up. There is no space to preserve the body, so contact
NHL or BJ medical.“
At L G Medical College, Dr Sunita Gupta of anatomy
department said, “Our college accepts whole body donation but you will have to
come before 6 pm as the specialists leave after office hours. Keep the body in
cold storage or under air-conditioning and bring it over tomorrow morning.“
The response was slightly encouraging at BJ Medical
College where Dr T C Singhal of anatomy department said, “You will face
problems at other medical colleges. Do no worry. Get the body tomorrow morning
and we will accept it. Till then, preserve it in cold storage or keep it
covered with ice under an air-conditioner.“
PRESERVING BODIES
This attitude is a problem as with increasing
awareness, more and more Amdavadis are donating their bodies.“Earlier, we used
to get very few bodies. Now, we receive 10-12 in a year,“ said Dr Gupta.
Medical colleges should not refuse bodies as it will not only discourage
donation but also thwart the last wish of a person, say experts Dr Singhal
said, “When I was posted in Jamnagar, we used to get many donations. Once we
got 100 bodies but we never refused them. We developed the infrastructure and
preserved the bodies. The preservation helped us in using the bodies over next
five years.“ An embalmed body can be preserved for several years depending on
the usage.
While the number of body donations are increasing,
medical colleges here haven't developed the infrastructure needed to preserve
the bodies.Most of them lack the tanks in which the bodies are chemically
preserved. A normal-sized tank can accommodate around 8-9 bodies.
Health minister Nitin Patel said, “We have adequate
number of bodies for research purposes. There is a huge mechanism involved in
preserving bodies so there is no need for extra bodies. But I wil look into the
matter relating to space crunch.“
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