Seventy-year-old Dr Sunil Shroff is a doctor with a difference. At 70, he has still not retired but he has saved innumerable lives. As a urologist and renal transplant surgeon, he was, once, preparing to perform one of his early deceased organ donations on a 12-year-old boy who had succumbed to a cobra bite. The procedure was set to take place at the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute (SRMC & RI) in Chennai.
Dr. Shroff explains that after initial treatments failed, the young boy was declared brain-dead at the hospital. The doctors there held out hope for five days, waiting for his recovery, but unfortunately, he did not revive.
With heavy hearts, they approached the grief-stricken father and asked if he would consider donating his son’s organs. He consented, and two kidneys, a heart, and two corneas were harvested and transplanted into five individuals, granting them the gift of life.
This groundbreaking procedure brought significant recognition to the hospital, making it only the fourth in the country to accomplish such a feat. The unique case of organ donation from a snake bite victim was also documented and published in an international journal.
This event marked the beginning of Dr. Shroff’s dedicated mission to promote deceased organ donation and transplantation in India. To support his cause, he founded the not-for-profit MOHAN (Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network) Foundation in 1997.
Currently, Dr. Shroff serves as a senior consultant in urology and transplantation at the Madras Medical Mission Hospital in Chennai. He is also the managing trustee of the MOHAN Foundation. Remarkably, he was the first Indian surgeon to successfully perform a kidney transplant on an HIV-positive patient.
According to MOHAN Foundation data, 1 million people in India suffer from end-stage organ failure each year, but only 16,041 receive life-saving organ transplants annually.
Dr. Shroff was born and raised by his grandparents in Sahibganj, a small railway town in Bihar.
He describes himself as a fearless, risk-taking, and free-spirited child. “I once saved a friend from drowning in the Ganga river. Responding to a dare from my brother, I even jumped from the first floor. I’m surprised I survived! These traits have significantly shaped my life and career,” he says.
Years later, after marrying and becoming a father, Dr. Shroff found that he could not adequately support his family due to the low salaries for doctors in India at the time. Consequently, he moved to the UK, where he lived for 12 years and completed his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) and a Diploma in Urology in 1990.
“I had promised my mother I would return to India. Despite being well-settled in the UK, I felt a strong sense of belonging to India. My colleagues would often tease me about the kidney transplant scandals in India, which hurt my feelings. When you’re abroad, you become a representative of your country. I wanted to return home and make a difference, so I came back in 1995,” he explains.
The Transplantation of Human Organs & Tissues Act (THOTA), 1994, had recently been passed by the government at that time. The legal recognition of brain death as a legitimate form of death greatly aided in the donation of deceased organs.
Only a small number of organs and tissues, such as the cornea, bones, skin, and blood vessels, can be donated following a natural cardiac death; however, eight solid organs, including important organs like the kidneys, heart, liver, and lungs, as well as almost 50 tissues, can be donated following a brain death.
Additionally, the Act made it illegal to deal in human organs for profit. In terms of organ donation, it is the strictest law in the world. Scams involving kidneys have decreased significantly, according to Dr. Shroff.
When there was no appropriate kidney donor in the family, I could see the anguish and desperation in the eyes of the carers and relatives. Therefore, we needed a substitute for “live donations.” Donating deceased organs was the solution, he claims.
However, at that time, the nation lacked both awareness and a support system. The physicians believed that brain death was too complicated for the general population to understand. He regrets that they didn’t think it was feasible to transplant deceased organs in India.
“We established the non-profit MOHAN Foundation for this reason. Its purpose was to increase public awareness about deceased organ donation and brain death. ” Dr. Shroff adds.
“We had to teach ICU physicians and nurses how to recognise brain death, remove organs, provide counselling, and assist bereaved families.”
The MOHAN Foundation has two main objectives when it comes to dead organ donation. Firstly, the organs for the heart, lungs, pancreas, and intestines must come from a deceased individual. Only in the event of a kidney and a portion of the liver may a live donation be made.
“We have made considerable use of technology. Our software determines which waiting list patient should receive the next available organ. Apps are what we utilise to diagnose and validate brain death. Dr. Shroff adds, “We also use AI to predict organ failure.”
Over 12,000 families have benefited from the foundation’s successful advice to donate their loved one’s organs after they have been certified brain dead.
The group has educated more than 250 million individuals about organ donation, trained more than 61,000 medical professionals, and around 4,000 bereavement counsellors or transplant coordinators.
More than 2.5 million donor cards have been distributed by the charity. 18001037100 is the hotline number for it. MOHAN Foundation has offices in Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Imphal, Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Jaipur, Mumbai, and the USA
In 2023, India conducted a total of 12,526 kidney transplants, 10,896 from living donors and 1,630 from deceased donors. Additionally, there were 4,173 liver transplants, including 3,338 from living donors and 828 from deceased donors. There were 221 total heart transplants, 191 liver, 21 pancreas and 14 small bowel transplants.
It is difficult to discuss organ donation during a period of bereavement. We must be sensitive to the bereaved family’s needs and offer them support. Before turning off the ventilator after five to six hours, we ask the family if they would like to donate the organs. He continues, “We tell them that they can save a lot of lives.
A lot of teamwork is required, and coordinators trained by the MOHAN Foundation handle this.
In keeping with his profession, Dr. Shroff made an appearance on the October 2020 episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC).
“Due to COVID-19, the show was broadcast without a live audience. We were able to secure Rs 25 lakh for the foundation,” he says.
Over the years, Dr. Shroff and the MOHAN Foundation have received numerous honours in recognition of their efforts.
To name a few, in 2015, the foundation was honoured with the British Medical Association South Asia Award for establishing a cadaver programme in India. In 2021, he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from Grant Thornton Sabera.
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