Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
ORGAN DONATION & TRANSPLANTATION (ODT)
Organ Donation & Transplantation (ODT): ____ Jemima Layzell died of a brain aneurysm in 2012 and her organ donations have helped eight people including five children. ____ Prologue: In 1894, the surgeon Otto Lanz (1865–1935) warned his colleagues not to scoff at a treatment “which aims at replacing the organ that has lost its function in the organism”. Today, no one would doubt the seriousness of a surgeon who treats a disease by replacing an organ. However, it was only around 1900 that the idea of organ replacement became self-evident. The introduction of antibiotics, massive vaccinations of the general population to prevent infectious diseases, and organ transplantation may be considered the miracles of twentieth century medicine. Organ transplantation is the best therapy for terminal and irreversible organ failure. Transplantation has given many a new lease on life and, to many more, an extension that would have otherwise been impossible. […]
THE DEATH
THE DEATH Prologue: As a student of medicine, since I joined medical college in the year 1978, I have been a witness to death either in the form of dissecting a dead body or declaring someone dead. The dissecting cadaver (corpse) is a critical component of every medical education. Without the anatomical understanding of the human body that is afforded by dissection, much of modern medicine would simply not exist. I also remember a very difficult task of informing a crying mother that her only son died of poisoning. Hundreds of patients have died before me in my experience as a doctor. Many times my junior doctors have expressed apprehension of declaring someone dead because they were afraid that patient may still be alive and I used to teach them signs of death like unconsciousness, no response to any stimulus, no breathing, no pulse and no heart beat on […]
