Direction (1 - 9): Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions. |
1. Once an organ donor's family gives its consent and the organs are matched to a recipient, medical professionals are faced with the onerous challenge of transporting organs while ensuring that the harvested organ reaches its destination in the shortest possible time. This is done in order to preserve the harvested organs and involves the police and especially the traffic police department. |
2. The traditional method of transporting organs by road is referred to as a 'green corridor'. This process entails police escorting an ambulance, so as to move around traffic-usually a specific traffic lane is chosen and all signals on the route stay green to ensure it to reach its destination in the shortest possible time. A 'green corridor' is a route cleared and cordoned off by the traffic police to ensure the smooth and steady transportation of harvested organs, on most occasions, to those awaiting a life-saving transplant. Organs tend to have a very short preservation time, such as the heart, which has to be harvested and transplanted within four hours or the lungs, which can be preserved for only six hours once they are harvested. |
3. The first green corridor in India was created by the Chennai Traffic Police in September, 2008 when they accomplished their task of enabling an ambulance to reach its destination within 11 minutes during peak hour traffic. That organ saved a nine year old girl whose life depended on the transplant. |
4. Similarly, such green corridors have been created by Traffic Police of various cities such as Pune, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, etc. Personnels are stationed at selected points to divert, control and clear the traffic giving way to the ambulance. Apart from this, a motorcade of police vehicles accompanies the ambulance ensuring that it does not face any problems. Delhi Traffic Police provided a green corridor from IGI Airport to the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences in Vasant Kunj for transportation of a liver. The distance of 14 kms was covered in 11 minutes. |
5. Experts point out the lack of a robust system to transport organs to super-speciality hospitals in least possible time. The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), the country's apex organ donation agency, is now framing a proposal to airlift cadaver organs and will send a report to the Union Health Ministry. "Cadaver organs have a short life and so transplant should be done within a few golden hours." Director (NOTTO) expressed. "Therefore, we are preparing a proposal for airlifting organs at any given moment. |
6. Most States do not have enough well-trained experts to retrieve or perform transplant procedures. Also, there is an acute shortage of advanced healthcare facilities to carry out a transplant. So, it is referred to other big centres in Metropolitan cities. Organs retrieved from Aurangabad, Indore, Surat, Pune are sent to Mumbai as these cities do not have super-speciality healthcare centres, informed officials. |
7. "In India, about fifty thousand to one lakh patients are suffering from acute heart failure and need heart transplant at any point of time. In a private set up, a heart transplant costs Rs. 15-20 lakhs, which is followed up by post-operative medication of about Rs. 30, 000 per month lifelong. |