Transplant patient files plea to harvest donor’s organ

Mumbai: Swapnil Raut, a person in the waiting list of the Zonal Transplant Co-ordination Committee (ZTCC), has approached the Bombay high court seeking directions to the state and the ZTCC to harvest the organs of a brain dead patient in Hiranandani Hospital as the relatives of the patient have agreed to donate his organs.

The petitioner has prayed that the state and Directorate of Health Services (DHS) should make haste in harvesting the organs through a team of doctors assigned by them as Hiranandani Hospital’s right to harvest and transplant organs has been cancelled. Any delay in harvesting the organs would result in them going waste and loss to the patients in the ZTCC waiting list. However, the state has sought time until Thursday to file its reply.

A division bench was hearing a writ petition filed by Raut, who has suffered an organ failure and is on the ZTCC wait list to receive a transplant. The petitioner has submitted that Hiranan-dani hospital had written to the DHS on August 8, seeking permission for retrieval of organs from Mr Mahesh Mehta who was declared clinically dead, assuring that their doctors would not retrieve the organs.