Hospitals for Transplants in India

Organ Transplantation in India

Organ transplantation is a surgical process of removing one person’s organ or tissue (the donor) and placing it into another person (the recipient) this is done when the recipient’s organ has failed working or damaged permanently. Both organs and tissues can be transplanted. There are only eight organs namely liver, lungs, heart, kidneys, pancreas and small intestine and Tissues like skin, corneas, bone tissues including tendons and cartilage, heart valves and blood vessels that can be donated.

India's Current Position

For streamline organ donation and transplantation activities, the legislation passed the Transplantation of Human Organ Act (THO) in 1994. In India, kidney transplants started in the 1970s and since then, India has been a leading country in transplantation on the Asian subcontinent. Nearly 500,000 people die in India due to the non-availability of an organ leading to a rate of 0.26% per million organ donations.

Though the process and cost of organ transplantation are easy the reason behind these statistics is fear, negligence, high religious value or emotional attachment to family members.

Cost & Procedure of Organ Transplantation in India

For a transplantation one must first complete the legal requirements, that is, one must be above 18 years of age, the definition of death and consent of the individual. The organs and blood group of both donor and recipient must match. After completing the legal requirements, one should register themselves with the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC) and get an NOC.

The cost of transplantation varies depending upon the organ or the tissue. Averagely, a heart transplant costs between USD 15000 to 25000, bone marrow transplant cost USD 35000 to 40000 whereas a kidney transplant cost USD 7000 to 10000. And, the postoperative medicines incur an expense of around 150 to 300 $  per month.