CMCH performs first cadaver organ harvest, donation

Feb 6, 2020, 04.36 AM IST

Coimbatore: For the first time, the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on Wednesday declared a patient brain dead and harvested his organs.

The donor patient, a 35-year-old man from Kattabettu in the Nilgiris, had fallen from the top of his under-construction house.

While the CMCH doctors transplanted a kidney into one of their kidney failure patients, the other kidney was donated to a patient in Salem Government Hospital and liver was donated to a private hospital in the city.

Though doctors at CMCH began performing live donor kidney transplants in 2017, they are yet to perform a cadaver transplant as they are yet to harvest organs from a brain-dead patient. However, doctors at Salem GH have had performed first organ harvest on January 21 this year.

Welcoming the first cadaver organ transplant in CMCH, a senior health department official said, “It is critical that government hospitals perform organ harvests, because this way even poor people can access cadaver organs. Only when a GH declares brain death and donates organs, will more organs circulate in the government hospital pool benefitting poor patients.”

CMCH dean Dr B Ashokan said they received a 35-year-old male patient referred from Ooty on February 2. “He had fallen accidentally from a height in his house and suffered head injuries. He was referred to CMCH after being given first aid in a nearby hospital,” he said. “Despite our neurology team treating him, he did not respond,” he said. On Tuesday morning, 48 hours after the accident, doctors performed the first sleep apnea test. By evening, they performed the second test again which elicited no response. The doctors declared him brain dead on Tuesday evening. The hospital’s grief counsellor, appointed by MOHAN foundation, Nishanth, first informed their family and broached the subject of organ donation. The patient’s wife and relatives agreed, said the hospital’s medical superintendent.

The Tamil Nadu Transplant Authority (TRANSTAN) was then informed. They allotted one kidney to a patient in CMCH waiting for a donor, another kidney to a patient in Salem GH and liver to Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital.

Since it was an accidental death and a medico-legal case, it became an uphill task for the authorities to get nod from the Nilgiris police for organ harvest and post-mortem.

The organ harvest surgery began at 11am. By 2pm, the three organs and cornea were harvested. Police organized green corridors CMCH to KMCH and Salem GH. “This is the first time we are harvesting cadaver organs. We hope this is the start of a successful cadaver organ harvest and transplant program,” Dr Ashokan said.

CMCH gets nod to perform liver, heart transplants

TNN | Feb 6, 2020, 04.35 AM IST

The transplant authority of Tamil Nadu has given permission to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) to perform liver and heart transplants. Now that the hospital has performed its first cadaver harvest surgery, it plans to start liver transplant programme as well soon. The hospital had applied for permission to start liver transplants in 2018-end.

Speaking to TOI, dean of the hospital Dr B Ashokan said the liver from the donor, Siva Perumal, had been allotted to a patient in Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital, because the donor’s blood group did not match with those of their liver failure patients. “We started our liver treatment programme around a year back, and some of our patients have also been put on TRANSTAN waiting list. However, the top patient who was ready did not match with the donor, so we had to give away the liver,” he said. “However, we hope that the next time we get a cadaver organ harvesting in our hospital, we can retain the liver for our own patients,” he added.

Liver transplants in the district and region are only being performed by private hospitals. “We have well-equipped intensive care units, ventilators, staff and surgeons who have trained at Stanley Medical College and under liver transplant expert Dr Mohammed Rela himself. We have created an exclusive ICU for liver transplant patients to prevent the risk of infections,” said Dr Ashokan, during an earlier interaction with TOI.

The GH performing transplants is critical, because a liver transplant costs at least Rs 25 lakh in private hospitals and a kidney transplant costs Rs 3.5 lakh. Though both procedures are covered by the Tamil Nadu Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme, many hospitals perform very few procedures under the government insurance. “The state insurance scheme rarely covers 75% of all costs incurred, and we are not allowed to demand extra payments also. So, we have a limit on the number of cases done under the insurance scheme and some patients have to be refused because of it,” said a coordinator of a multi-specialty hospital on Avinashi Road.

A mixed bag for Madurai docs in Neet PG exam

TNN | Feb 2, 2020, 04.17 AM IST

Madurai: Two days after the results of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Post Graduate (Neet PG) exams were declared, major medical entrance coaching centres in the city said that though the performance of candidates from Tamil Nadu was satisfactory with quite a few securing top ranks in the All India Rankings, the results were not good as last year’s results.

“We are yet to sort out the complete results and confirm our toppers. Tamil Nadu has got the maximum pass percentage at 55 per cent. However, when it comes to top ranks, the number of top ranks from Tamil Nadu in the top 1000, which is usually around 200 is sadly less than 100 this time around,” said Dr Arun Kumar, co-ordinator of a Neet PG coaching centre. A few students from Madurai Medical College have secured top 1000 ranks this year.

The co-ordinator of another Neet PG coaching centre, Tamil Selvam, said that many students from Madurai and Tamil Nadu have scored between 600-900 marks. “A score above 650 is likely to guarantee that students get admission in colleges within Tamil Nadu itself,” he said. The cut-off scores for this year for General Category, SC/ST/OBC, and UR-PWD are 366, 319 and 342 respectively. The individual score card of the candidates who appeared for Neet PG exam 2020 can be downloaded from the website https://nbe.edu.in by Monday.

Madurai Kamaraj University, Harvard University to work on genomic research

TNN | Feb 3, 2020, 01.56 PM IST

MADURAI: By next month, Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) will be finalizing a pact with Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology and Harvard University to carry out genomic research on fossils recovered from sites like Keezhadi. Talks have been underway to ink an MoU between the two universities since September 2019.

Speaking to TOI, professor K Balakrishnan, HOD of Immunology at MKU, who is to lead the research team said that the process of inking an MoU with Harvard University is still only in the pipeline. "Everything will be finalized soon. The Tamil Nadu government has agreed to provide fossils from various archaeological sites including Keezhadi for DNA extraction and subsequent research. However, we are yet to reach an understanding with Harvard University," he said.

The research work is to be carried out under the guidance of DR R Pitchappan, a scientist in the field of immunology, infectious diseases and human genomics. MKU is hoping for a majority of the research work to be done at the research facility and laboratory that is currently being established in Madurai at the university.

Last year, the university authorities had said that initial research in Madurai will be done by experts in different departments like immunology, sociology and history from MKU and archaeological experts from across India and abroad. Later, research was to be done by experts at Harvard University in the United States with advanced research facilities. The final research findings will then be finally published via the Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology.

No delay in taking action against CoE on graft: MKU VC

TNN | Feb 4, 2020, 04.51 AM IST

Vice-chancellor (VC) of Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), M Krishnan on Monday said that there is no delay in taking action against the controller of examination (CoE) O Ravi over the graft charges against him. Meanwhile, Ravi has claimed that the charges against him are part of a conspiracy against him.

On January 23, an unauthorised person reportedly accessed the consolidated mark sheets of various centres in the office of the CoE. The VC is also said to have acted on a tip-off, nabbing the person in the act. When confronted Ravi, he denied having any link to the person.

Last week, general secretary, MKU Principals’ Association, I Ismail, sought the suspension of the CoE and a DVAC probe for allegedly collecting Rs 3 crore bribe from various distance education centre coordinators in Tamil Nadu and other states by distributing consolidated mark statements without collecting fees dues to the university. tnn

Authorities were sleeping after SC confirmed death sentence, says HC

TNN | Feb 5, 2020, 04.54 AM IST

New Delhi: Critical of the delay in the Nirbhaya case, Delhi high court on Wednesday said “authorities concerned were sleeping” after the Supreme Court confirmed death sentence of the four convicts in May 2017.

“I have no hesitation in saying that after dismissal of the special leave petition (SLP) by the Supreme Court in May 2017, nobody took steps for issuance of death warrants for their execution,” Justice Suresh Kait observed.

Listing how each of the convicts adopted “delay tactics” the high court noted that Mukesh Singh filed a review against the apex court’s dismissal of his appeal after a lapse of 186 days, while Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta moved a similar plea after a lapse of 225 days. Fourth accused Akshay Thakur took the most time, seeking review plea after a delay of 950 days.

It said even after the reviews were dismissed by SC the state’s authorities “waited for reasons best known to them” till December 2019, to approach trial court and seek a black warrant.

The Delhi government had moved the court for death warrants nearly two years after SC had dismissed the appeals against confirmation of death penalty. Before the government and Tihar Jail administration acted, Nirbhaya’s family moved the trial court in February 2019, seeking a date of hanging to be fixed. The high court also pointed out that Singh and Sharma filed curative plea after a gap of 550 and 549 days, respectively, from the date of dismissal of their review pleas.

On Wednesday, high court also plugged a loophole in Delhi jail rules, making it clear that Tihar and other jail authorities in the capital can now move to execute death warrants as soon as a death row convict loses the criminal appeal before the apex court, instead of waiting till review or mercy plea is filed.

Removing the confusion created by 2018 revised Delhi Prison Rules that led to crippling delay, the court interpreted these to hold that the bar on separate hangings exists only till the time appeals in Supreme Court are pending.

Satisfied but will be happy only when convicts are hanged: Nirbhaya's mother

PTI | Feb 5, 2020, 04.51 PM IST

NEW DELHI: Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi on Wednesday said she will be happy only on the day when convicts in the 2012 gangrape and murder case are hanged, shortly after the Delhi high court gave a week's time to the four for exhaustion of all legal remedies.

"I am satisfied but I will be happy only on the day when the convicts will be hanged. The court has given them a week's time, we will wait till then. This was the government's appeal and the government will think over it how early could they be hanged," she said.

A 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16 and 17, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by six men before being thrown out on the road.

On Wednesday, the high court said all the four convicts have to be executed together, not separately, and dismissed the Centre's plea against the trial court's order staying the execution of their death sentence.

It also faulted the authorities concerned for not taking steps for issuance of death warrant after the rejection of appeals of the accused by the Supreme Court in 2017.

Justice Suresh Kumar Kait directed the convicts to exhaust within seven days all the remedies available to them after which the authorities should act as per law.

The high court, however, said, "It cannot be disputed that the convicts have frustrated the process by using delaying tactics."