CHENNAI: In 2008, when the government was planning a series of orders to encourage cadaver organ donation, Dr Ashokan and Dr Pushpanjali were among the first to sign on the dotted line to donate organs of their teenaged son A Hitendran, who was declared brain dead on September 20, 2008.
The couple’s plea for organ donation at a time of grief and the organ transplant registry’s work with hospitals have encouraged nearly 1,000 families in Tamil Nadu to donate organs of their brain dead patients in the past nine years.

“From being blacklisted for illegal trade, Tamil Nadu has come a long way,” said state health minister C Vijayabaskar. This year, Tamil Nadu won the national award for organ transplantation for the third consecutive year.Besides cornea, kidney, heart, lung, pancreas and small bowel, the state has encouraged donors to give skin, blood vessels, spine bone and disc tissues and heart valves. The donations, combined with the chief minister’s state health insurance policy, have made free transplant surgeries for the poor possible in private and public hospitals, benefitting more than 1.5 crore families…..Readmore