What ails cadaveric transplant programs in India: perspectives of a transplant coordinator

In India, the success of a cadaveric transplant program is limited by the number of available organs. Major reasons for this organ shortage include ignorance and misconceptions about brain death and the organ retrieval process; mistrust in the medical system; fear of mutilation of the body, delay in the funeral ceremonies, and mistreatment in the hospital if the patient has pledged organs following death; nonexistence of an organ procurement agency; and an ineffective organ retrieval and sharing network. Nonexistence of efficient organ coordination is an important factor in the organ shortage. Now, as organ transplant programs are being conceived and implemented in full earnest, transplant coordinators must be included as an indispensable component. Their role will be to educate the public, act as a liaison between the hospital and the society, and coordinate the process of organ procurement by taking consent of grieving relatives of brain dead persons.